Something There That Wasn't There Before
by TheCrazyPrincess
Summary: Relationships, crushes, and the vague idea of love were things that both Shouto Todoroki and Momo Yaoyorozu never wanted or even considered important on their quest to becoming heroes. You can't help how you feel, but you can sure as hell try and hide it.
1. Momo

**So I totally binged My Hero up to their most current episode and there may not have been the most material to build a ship for these two but holy cow do I like what I have to work with to set this ship sail.**

 **Anywho, this is going to be a progressing story with each chapter from a different character's viewpoint, set slightly in the future from the anime (sorry haven't had time to read the manga yet) with some callbacks to canon moments but mostly "non-canon just stuff I think could happen" moments. I'm trying my best to stay in character with these two as well as channel my inner teenager and some Meg from Hercules singing "I won't say I'm in love"**

 **Enjoy!**

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Relationships, crushes, and the vague idea of love were things that both Shouto Todoroki and Momo Yaoyorozu never wanted or even considered important on their quest to becoming heroes. You can't help how you feel, but you can sure as hell try and hide it.

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Chapter 1: Momo

Momo greatly admired Todoroki since their first day of class at U.A. She admired his quirk's strength and his ability to use it in just about any combat situation, as well as his perpetual cool and calm demeanor. Her quick analysis of him proved that he would be a beneficial teammate and she made a quick mental note as a reminder for future class exercises. It wasn't just the half and half boy, she respected all of her classmates, although some a little less than others (cough cough Mineta), but there was something about Todoroki that she couldn't shake out of her head.

Much like a kindling fire, Momo never noticed the heat in the pit of her belly whenever she was around Todoroki until it was a raging bonfire. She couldn't quite put her finger on when it started, maybe it was always there and she never noticed or maybe it was like a quick slap in the face. Either way she was not prepared for the onslaught of emotions that came with having a teenage crush. She's had crushes before, but nothing ever came of them since her mother believed them to be a distraction and practically barred her from having a social life. Since then she viewed the butterflies, blushing, and bubbly feeling as nothing more than another interruption in her journey to be a pro-hero and she shoved those emotions aside to focus on more important things, like organic and biochemistry.

"When did it happen?" she caught herself wondering aloud in her dorm room. Second year Momo Yaoyorozu was flopped on her oversized bed with arms splayed. She closed her advanced chemistry book with a thud and rolled over into her pillow. She couldn't even study without the thought of him creeping its way into her head. Every new object she studied somehow her mind would drift to how she would use it in a fight against Todoroki, which at first she thought was fine since he was one of the strongest students in class, but when she got to a chapter about materials and ropes her imaginary battle simulations became less about fighting. Deciding to take a much needed break and clear her head, she threw on some fuzzy slippers, grabbed a snack, and descended to the common area where she avoided Kirishima, Sero, Kaminari, and Bakugo's banter by going straight to the dining tables. She pushed away the slight disappointment of not seeing Todoroki there and drank a few sips of her premade protein shake then let out a groan and smacked her head on the wooden table.

"Yo Momo, you okay?" Kaminari asked from the couch, watching the entire thing out of the corner of his eye.

Momo's face flushed at being noticed and she kept it glued to the table. "Yeah, I'm fine, just over studied and now my head hurts," she forced out a small laugh to show she was alright.

"You know there's a pressure point on your hand that helps with headaches." She knew that voice, the only guy in class who had that monotone and aloof voice was none other than Todoroki.

"Ah… yeah… thank you, Todoroki," she quietly muttered. She rolled her head to the side so now her cheek was stuck to the wooden surface but she wasn't expecting her view to be blocked by a white t-shirt. She looked up and made eye contact with one blue eye and one grey. They weren't his usual expressionless gaze, was that worry? Her heart leaped to her throat at the simple idea that he was worried about her. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," she berated herself and tried to calm down.

"You're really red Yaoyorozu, are you feeling alright?" his straightforward observation cut through her inner dialogue and she quickly sat up avoiding any more eye contact.

"I'm fine, just a little tired." An obvious lie, she stared down at her hands and nervously started to play with her nails. A little squeak escaped her lips when a cool hand gently touched her forehead and she stared at Todoroki with wide eyes and an even heavier blush on her face. A moment later he pulled his hand back and she whipped her face forward to stare intently at the protein shake as if it had all the answers to the universe.

"Your face is burning up, you might be getting sick," his ever calm voice replied.

"I'm actually about to go back to my room now and rest." She grabbed her things and hurried past the pajama clad boy still standing by the table. "Thank you, Todoroki," she quickly muttered on her way out of the room.

"Man Todoroki I've seen girls run away from Mineta, but I would never think they would run from you too!" Kaminari laughed and the others joined in minus Bakugo who was muttering under his breath.

Momo rushed into her room and leaned against her door, slowly sliding down until her butt touched the floor. Her heart was pounding in her ears. A fire was exploding in her stomach. Now she can't even talk to him without her freaking out. Perfect.

"When did it start?" she echoed her earlier thought and brought her knees in close to her chest and thought back to some of their first encounters.

She thought about their first few weeks of classes and his incredible skill and intense focus. The way he could easily over power his classmates if he wanted to, but how quiet and modest he was about how incredible his quirk really was. Those emotions were nothing more than admiration she mentally chided, trying to reason with herself. She moved on to the U.A Sports Festival and how he picked her to be on his team, commenting on how he thought they were the strongest he could think of. A slow blush grew thinking back and she lightly smacked herself on her cheeks to get it together. Even then she didn't remember feeling the same burning feeling as she does now.

"Maybe it was the final exam." She remembered how they were paired up to fight against Aizawa-sensai and how much he encouraged her and helped her get her confidence back by admitting to being her second vote for class representative, trusting her instincts, and praising her intelligence. But even then she couldn't tell her feelings towards him specifically because she was so overwhelmed from the test itself. She thought about the forest training and how it was cut short due to the League of Villains, and how Todoroki and Kirishima came to her room and asked for her help. She was too caught up in fear and adrenaline during All Might's fight with All for One that she couldn't comprehend her actions when she grabbed Todoroki's hand to run away from the warehouse. It wasn't until they were blocks away trying to catch their breath did she realize their hands were still tightly intertwined.

 _"I'm sorry Todoroki, I wasn't- that wasn't- uhm," she panted, still out of breath._

 _"It's fine, we were trying to escape without getting separated," he replied, his breathing heavy and his cheeks dusted pink from what she thought was him being out of breath. He called Izuku to let them know they got out okay and to find a place to meet up after getting their locations Todoroki closed his phone and looked around at the growing crowd of people around them._

 _"Did they make it out okay?" Momo asked._

 _"Yeah they're over in the middle of the town square by the giant TV, they're showing the fight live," without missing a beat he grabbed Momo's hand and started to walk in the same direction as the people running away much to her shock at their resumed contact, "we don't want to get separated," he reiterated but he said it so quietly was it directed towards her or himself?_

She covered her face in her hands at the memory and sighed, this wasn't good. Teenage crushes are too much of a silly distraction for her to get caught up in, but there's this fire inside her that she can't put out. She didn't know when this feeling started but she did know one thing, she was totally screwed.

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 **So I'm totally in love with Momo's powers, like I'm a bio major and I've had to taken o-chem, biochem, and p-chem so its really cool seeing a hero who's not just "super smart" but she's intelligent from her own doing and hard work and it clearly pays off. But yeah having Momo's powers would be super cool.**

 **Oh and after writing this chapter and naming the story I got a really AU idea where Momo is Belle and Shouto is Beast xD (extra xD at the idea of the other classmates being furniture)**

 **I'm totally open to all comments you guys may have! Thanks for reading and stay beautiful!**


	2. Shouto

**Thank you guys for the favorites, follows, and feedback! I really appreciate it! I'm also super happy this is a popular ship even though they don't interact all that much it's just cute imagining the "what ifs"**

 **I'm already writing chapter 4 so hopefully I can post them on a regular basis. Sorry about any typos you may find! I skim to edit so I totally miss some stuff.**

 **But anywho enjoy the chapter!**

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Relationships, crushes, and the vague idea of love were things that both Shouto Todoroki and Momo Yaoyorozu never wanted or even considered important on their quest to becoming heroes. You can't help how you feel, but you can sure as hell try and hide it.

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Chapter 2: Shouto

Shouto had the utmost respect for Yaoyorozu since the first day of U.A. He respected her for coming in first during the Quirk Apprehension Test and how she provides both analytical and earnest explanations when asked questions or giving advice. He would have to remember how intelligent she is when it comes to team activities in class. However, this was something Shouto found odd, he didn't have respect for most people in his class, true he tolerated them and would consider some decent acquaintances, but respecting them is something completely different. There was something about Yaoyorozu that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

Shouto sat on his floor and relaxed, letting his mind rest after another rough day of hero training. He ran his hand through the white side of his hair and removed his training jacket, reminding himself to go and wash it later. He placed his hands on his knees, closed his eyes, and began to think over the battle training they did with their quirks that afternoon. He mulled over different approaches he could've taken depending on his opponent and looked at ways he could improve on himself. He was halfway into a battle with Kirishima, working on his grappling when his mind instantly replaced his red haired sparring partner with Yaoyorozu. She was pinned under him in her hero uniform, except she didn't look like her minded it. She gazed up at him with a sly smile like she was keeping a secret from him. Their heads were inches apart and with the little bit of space she had from being held down, she lifted her head slightly and-

Shouto's eyes flew open and he could feel his face burning, which sometimes happens during training when he loses control of his left side, but he could feel the heat on his right side too. He felt like Mineta by unintentionally picturing a girl under him during training. He felt gross and immediately went to take a shower. He jumped into the ice cold water to hopefully cool off his body and brain, but the image of her under him with her onyx eyes gazing straight into his flooded his head. He groaned and quickly washed up then dried off and slipped into his plain white shirt and blue pajama bottoms. His body still felt hot and his mind was still racing.

"I don't have time for this," Shouto mumbled to himself. He's never had to deal with this kind of feeling before due to his strict and abusive upbringing, so he had no idea where all these emotions came from. He didn't remember feeling this way about her last week it was as if an alarm went off in his head and he can't turn it off or even hit snooze. He's heard about crushes from some of his classmates, particularly the guys teasing Izuku and the girls making comments to Uraraka, but that was really the extent of his knowledge on the subject. He didn't have that kind of emotional luxury growing up.

"When did this even start?" he asked aloud and slumped onto one of his Japanese styled cushions. For a year Yaoyorozu was always just a teammate, a classmate, or a potential enemy if they were on opposite teams, but now he wasn't so sure what he felt anymore. He thought back to their first interaction, well it wasn't really an interaction, it was more of him being upset that she outranked him in the Quirk Apprehension Test then blown away, like he would show it on his face though, at her calculated commentary on the different fights during the Battle Trials. He quickly understood how she could potentially outrank him and didn't hesitate to vote for her for class representative. He pushed on to the U.A festival when he picked her for his team, knowing that she was both strong and intelligent made her an obvious choice. "But that was just good strategy," he told himself, trying to justify his pick. His mind then wandered to the girls being tricked into wearing cheer uniforms and seeing her, though only for a brief time, and feeling a bit light headed. He figured it was just nerves for the upcoming one-on-ones but now thinking back on it he wasn't too sure.

He moved to the final exam when he was paired up with her and noted to himself, "we did make a great team." He remembered how dejected and worried she looked and how he didn't waste a second to remind her how amazing and talented she was, going as far as admitting he was the other person who voted for her. The words that came out could've been due to the fact they were being chased and graded by Aizawa-sensai and he wanted her to do something quickly or maybe it was the truth. He felt his cheeks burn when he remembered creating that ice wall then turning and getting an eyeful of Yaoyorozu's chest. He wished he looked for just a second longer then inwardly smacked himself at the thought, he's slowly turning into Mineta.

His mind continued to him and Kirashima visiting her in the hospital after the forest training went to hell. He felt his stomach tie in a knot when he saw her in the bed, thankful she wasn't more seriously hurt, but at the time he thought that feeling as nothing more than looking out for a teammate. He remembered being frozen in fear as All for One stepped out of the destroyed warehouse. Still being frozen in place after he built the ice ramp, he felt Yaoyorozu's soft hand grab his and yank him down the alley and away from danger. They made it to a safe area and he quickly felt her hand slip from his.

" _I'm sorry Todoroki, I wasn't- that wasn't- uhm," she panted, it looked like she was out of breath._

 _"It's fine, we were trying to escape without getting separated," he replied, his breathing heavy and his cheeks dusted pink from holding her hand and the fact he was a little bummed she let go, but he figured she was just being polite. He called Izuku to let them know they got out okay and to find a place to meet up after getting their locations Todoroki closed his phone and looked around at the growing crowd of people around them._

 _"Did they make it out okay?" Momo asked._

 _"Yeah they're over in the middle of the town square by the giant TV, they're showing the fight live," he wasn't really thinking when he grabbed her hand again, maybe it was so they didn't get separated or maybe he wanted the comfort that of their hands intertwined. He looked ahead to hide his face and muttered, "We don't want to get separated." He reiterated his earlier statement but it was more of an excuse for his own thoughts. If he wasn't so sure it was the adrenaline he would've been sure that she was blushing._

He smacked his cheeks to jolt him from his thoughts and thought it be best he go downstairs for a change in scenery before his mind exploded from overthinking. He put on a pair of dark blue slippers then walked into the common area. As he was coming down the hallway he heard a loud smack and then one of the guys ask if Yaoyorozu if she was alright. He felt his stomach do a quick flip but he suppressed any indication on his face that something could be off and continued walking toward the commons.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just over studied and now my head hurts," she forced out a small laugh to show she was alright. Shouto saw her jet black pony tail stick up from the back of her head. Her forehead was on the edge of the table, her eyes were squeezed shut, and her fists were clenched in her lap.

"You know there's a pressure point on your hand that helps with headaches," he walked up and tried to make a joke but it fell flat due to his monotone voice.

"Ah… yeah… thank you, Todoroki," she quietly muttered. He watched her head roll to one side and look up at him, her face looked so red and she looked so upset that he couldn't help himself, his poker face broke and a hint of genuine worry flashed across it. Her obsidian eyes widened a bit before they darted away.

"You're really red Yaoyorozu, are you feeling alright?" she quickly sat up and he watched her start to fidget with her nails.

"I'm fine, just a little tired." He could hear the nervousness in her voice and he leaned in a bit, gently putting the back of his right hand on her forehead, his mom would do that for him when he was coming down with a fever. He didn't think this through though because he soon became very aware of how close they were and he pulled his hand back. He didn't want to scare her away.

"Your face is burning up, you might be getting sick," he somehow managed to keep his voice calm even though every other part of him was slightly shaking.

"I'm actually about to go back to my room now and rest." She grabbed her things and hurried past him. "Thank you, Todoroki," she quickly muttered on her way out of the room. Shouto stood there a little confused then a voice piped up from the couch, followed by some snickers.

"Man Todoroki I've seen girls run away from Mineta, but I would never think they would run from you too!" Kaminari laughed. The guys who were out there laughed at his awkward encounter except for Bakugo who looked like he was going to attack Shouto at any moment. I guess he still wasn't over losing to him earlier that day during sparring. His thoughts drifted back to Yaoyorozu and how flustered she looked leaving the room; red face, dark eyes, soft hair… long legs… a silky sleeping shirt. Damn, he was doing it again. He silently chastised himself and vowed to not turn into Mineta.

He can feel an invisible heat on both sides of his body as more thoughts of Yaoyorozu sneak their way in, he quietly excused himself from the group of guys still making fun of him and walked back up to his room. Teenage crushes were only a distraction, and he didn't have time for distractions on his path to be a pro-hero. He leaned his head against the door and closed his eyes to try and focus. He didn't know when this feeling started but he did know one thing, he was totally screwed.

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 **Thanks for reading! And I love reading your guys' feedback! You're all super sweet. Grammar isn't my best area of expertise so I apologize if it's rough in some areas. But yeah I hope this ship keeps sailing! Stay beautiful!**


	3. ARCS

**Hi again! I was going to wait to post this chapter but I really wanted to keep the story moving!**

 **I did a quick edit but I apologize if there's any typos that I missed. Anywho, enjoy!**

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Chapter 3: A.R.C.S

A loud beeping ripped Shouto from his peaceful sleep. He rolled over and turned off the alarm on his phone. He sat up and stretched a bit, running his hand through the tousled red and white locks. His normal morning routine would be a quick meditation session before getting ready for class, but he barely got any sleep last night and was exhausted.

"Damn it," he cursed himself and his extremely vivid, although still PG, dreams centering on his raven haired classmate, "since when did I start dreaming about her?" He was just thankful that his teenage hormones didn't take things too far, otherwise there would be no way he could look at Yaoyorozu the same ever again. But his hopes backfired and the idea that she could be in more promiscuous positions wiggled its way into his mind. It was going to be a long day.

He shuffled down the stairs in the standard U.A uniform behind Mina and Hagakure. They noticed his presence and Mina began to walk backwards through the commons as she greeted him.

"Good morning, Todoroki!" her bright smile encompassed her pink face.

"Morning," he replied with the usual low level of enthusiasm.

"Ahh stoic as always," Hagakure giggled.

"Hi Tsu!" Mina called over to the frog-like girl who was just about to head out the door.

"Good morning you three," she looked over to Shouto, "did you not get enough sleep, Todoroki? You look tired."

"My dreams kept me up," he said.

"Todoroki has dreams?!" Mina squealed, "I bet it was something super manly like beating up villains." Mina laughed as she air punched and kicked an imaginary bad guy.

"Maybe it was a fantasy of him fighting a dragon and saving a princess!" Hagakure added, she wrapped her arms around her chest and lightly twirled thinking about the half and half boy on a horse in a prince's outfit.

"Or it was just a nightmare," the ever so blunt Tsu interjected, putting a finger on her chin. The other two girls stared blankly at her.

"It was none of those, but thank you for your concern." Hagakure and Mina shrugged and moved on, but Tsu wasn't so convinced. It wasn't really her place to butt in so she left it at that and joined them in their walk to U.A as the conversation moved away from Shouto and onto the upcoming team simulation exercise they would be doing that morning.

The classroom was loud as usual with Iida trying to calm everyone down before Aizawa-sensai would show up and scoot himself in with his yellow sleeping bag. Even in their second year he took every opportunity he could to squeeze in a nap where he could. The girls ran ahead of Shouto a while back to catch up with some of the other guys in their class so he was alone when he walked into the bustling room. He made a quick glance around and tried not to look in the back corner, but his eyes betrayed him and he snuck a glance, when he did, he made direct eye contact with Yaoyorozu. They held each other's gaze for a second before he darted his line of sight to the floor and walked to his seat. As he was unpacking his things, he eyed her out of the corner of his eye. Her straight black hair was up in her usual ponytail and her uniform was neat and clean. This was the same thing she wore for every class, but why did she look... different?

"How are you feeling Yaoyorozu?" the words came out before he could stop and think them through.

Her head perked up from her notes, "Oh! I'm fine really, it must've been from over working myself." She gave him a small smile and he could feel his heart beat faster.

"That's good," was all he managed to get out.

"Thank you for checking up on me."

His heart started to beat a little faster and he felt himself let out a little smile. "You're welcome."

She went to reply but the door flew open and their worn out homeroom teacher came in and slammed the overly large door behind him. The class immediately became quiet and everyone settled in their seats.

"Due to the increase in public villain incidents, we're going to practice using your quirks in ways that'll minimize civilian involvement and injuries by working in teams on the new U.A Advanced Response Civilian Simulator," Aizawa said. "Midnight will be running the test so head to Gym Beta, class dismissed." He wasted no time zipping himself up to nap and letting his jet black hair fall over his face. The 1-A students quickly packed up their stuff and made their way to the gym where Midnight was already waiting.

"Good morning!" she was standing in front of two shiny, large black spheres with giant monitors hanging on the gymnasium wall. "In order to be a pro-hero you must be able to quickly assess the potentially dangerous situation at hand while making it priority number one to keep the civilians safe," she gestured to the large spheres behind her with her whip, "these are the Advanced Response Civilian Simulators, or A.R.C.S. You will be placed in teams of two by random and when you step inside you will put on the hanging black helmet." She opened the door to one of the spheres and inside was a helmet with a visor over it as well as gloves and boots with wires attached to them. "You will then put on the gloves and boots, by wearing this equipment you will enter a virtual reality of the program's choosing with a random villain, random placed civilians, and a random mission-"

"Isn't it dangerous to use our quirks in such a small place?" Kaminari asked.

"Don't interrupt me," Midnight gave him a death glare and the students shuddered. "Right so random mission, villain, and civilians. The helmet will monitor your brain activity correlating with your quirk and will respond accordingly within the simulation, same with your hand and feet movement. Since you're in a large enough sphere, you can move freely without the risk of injuring yourself, however that does not mean you can take this exercise lightly. You will be strictly graded due to the computer's algorithm and my judgment based on your performance. There are mikes hooked up in the helmets so be sure to communicate with your team, we will be able to see and hear everything."

The class stared in awe at the new machines, watching them whir when Midnight flipped their switches on. Green lights flashed and one of the screens on the wall was white with a black line down the center. Buzzing and a couple clunks were heard and the large spheres, easily the size of a small classroom began to rotate and pivot on their stands as they warmed up.

"One more thing, since the machine is actively scanning your brain it will pick up on your subconscious thoughts, fears, and so on to potentially use them against you. This exercise is not meant to test your physical strength, but your mental strength. So if you feel you are unable to continue there is an emergency switch on the side of your helmet, flip it at any time you want to end the simulation."

Midnight hit a few buttons on the control panel and two names flashed up on the screen. MASHIRAO OJIRO and TSUYU ASUI appeared on the left and right side of the screen, respectively. The class cheered as they entered the spheres and geared up. Midnight made sure they were hooked up properly and then closed the door. She pressed a few more buttons and the screens went black.

Shouto watched the screen as his two classmates opened their eyes inside the simulation. It was like one of those first person shooter games being able to see through the person's eyes. The monitor below that one had a better camera view of the two in what looked like a suburban setting with constant trains, commuters, and school children around the streets. He noticed a large plume of smoke coming up from where one of the train stops was located. Tsu and Ojiro wasted no time reacting and ran towards the source of the explosion.

"Tsu is taking the high ground to see if the villain is airborne and get more insight on the situation while Ojiro is running on foot while trying to ease the scared civilians, they're actively communicating too which is extremely helpful when unsure of the situation," Momo said in observation only a few seconds into the first battle and already being able to see their plan. Her classmates nodded in agreement and Shouto never ceased to be amazed by her intellect.

"They found the villain already!" Sero shouted, looking at Tsu's view he could see that the culprit of the train car explosion was a lanky woman wearing an all-black jumpsuit that covered her whole body except her hands and with tubes running down and around her arms, legs, and neck. It looked like only water was inside those tubes but when she rubbed her hands together a silvery powder flew from her palms and onto the side of a different train car. The villain jumped up to a higher view and shot the clear liquid onto the powder. An intense explosion rocked the station and civilians panicked as they tried to escape the smoke and falling debris.

Tsu jumped into action, grabbing a child who fell with her tongue and swinging him to safety on the other side of the road. Ojiro finally caught up and thanks to Tsu's constant communication he was able to jump in and try to clear out any bystanders. The villain blew more powder into the air and she watched it fall on the ground by Ojiro, laughing she shot more liquid out of her tubes and onto the ground. The tail boy sprung out of the way and narrowly dodged the falling water, dusting off the powder from his shoulder.

"Tsu do you know what this is?" he called, jumping out of the way from the onslaughts of mini explosions created.

"I'm not too sure, ribbit, it looks like a chemical reaction. The powder and liquid alone look safe but they create an explosion when combined."

"She also doesn't get too close to the powder when she shoots it with the fluid so we should try close range!" he shouted at the frog girl. She nodded her head and they set off on their plan.

"Hey Momo, is it a chemical reaction?" Jiro asked.

"I couldn't say for sure, but the liquid looks like it's just water since it doesn't do damage to anything else it touches, knowing that and the reaction it causes when mixed with water the powder is probably some alkali element, possibly potassium?" the rest of the class looked at her in awe, including Shouto who was standing in the back of the crowd.

"I'd expect nothing less from our studious V.P!" Mina said.

As Tsu and Ojiro were getting close to defeating the villain, a small girl with black hair and round teary eyes came from the smoking train car. She was wearing a light green blouse and Shouto noticed she bore a striking resemblance to Tsu.

"Sissy!" the little girl shouted, rubbing her eyes. Tsu was about to yank off one of the tubes of water with her tongue when she heard the cry of her little sister, Satsuki. "Sissy! Samidere is hurt, he's not waking up!" Tsu stayed within close range of the villain as she tucked and rolled along the roofline, looking for an opening to strike or even escape. She rubbed her hands together and threw more dust towards the train station, some of it being blocked by the breeze created by Ojiro swinging his tail. Tsu's eyes followed the dust while her tongue wrapped around the main canister of liquid on the villain's back, she watched it land on the cement behind her little sister. With a good grip, she flicked her head then back down trying to smash the tubes, but while in the air, spurts of water shot from the nozzles. Tsu made no hesitation and released her captive while jumping to block as much water as she could from hitting the floor and at the same time grabbing her little sister and pulling her away from the expected explosion.

"Tsu!" Ojiro shouted, watching her turn her body to take the brunt of the explosion while keeping her sister just out of range. Another explosion blew Ojiro off the roof and onto the pavement, after the smoke cleared the villain was gone. Tsu was visibly injured, but she brushed herself off as her sister came running over and have her a tearful hug, and then the screens went black.

The doors on the two spheres opened, Midnight helped Tsu and Ojiro out of the gear and back on real ground. Shouto noticed that even the ever calm Tsu looked a little shaken up, but that was expected from something so realistic. "That's what Midnight meant about mental training," he thought to himself.

"That was a good start," Midnight commented, "with a little more quirk training you'll do much better."

"But the villain got away," Ojiro looked down to the ground.

"Yes, but you managed to direct a crowd of people away from the chaos which limited the injuries, and you," she looked at Tsu, "while you are a little reckless jumping into an explosion like that, you did save a life."

"Ribbit."

"Alrighty! Next two are…" she pressed one of the buttons on the control panel, "Todoroki and Jiro!" Shouto walked through the crowd of his classmates as they cheered them on.

"Good luck Todoroki," he heard Momo's voice through all the noise. The corners of his lips upturned as he nodded to Jiro and put on the helmet, gloves, and boots. Midnight came around to make sure he had it all hooked up then the door closed and he was swallowed by darkness.

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 **I could totally see U.A having some weird simulator thing, it would make sense so they don't keep blowing up practice fields. I tried to make it as un-cringey as possible but I guess you guys will be the judges of that haha. It's really hard trying to think of cool and unique quirks, I don't know how the writers do it!**

 **On a different note, I read/listened to one of the My Hero Academia Drama CDs (I didn't even know that was a thing) and the Ennichi Festival one was the cutest thing. I died a little.**

 **But yeah, thank you guys for your comments, favorites, and follows! Stay beautiful!**


	4. ARCS Part 2

**Hiyah! I really don't have much to say, but enjoy the chapter!**

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Chapter 4: A.R.C.S Part 2

Momo watched both sides of the large viewing screen flash to life. Todoroki and Kyoka just entered the A.R.C.S and they were starting their exercise, she could hear the machines whirl as it processed their randomized scenario. Judging by the wider camera angle on the lower screen, she assumed they were in a busy metropolitan city that was based loosely off of Tokyo. She saw the simulation's handy work in the creation of so many bystanders on their commute. She looked over to Kyoka's screen and watched her immediately put her earphone jacks into the cement and listen for any unusual movement.

"There's too many people walking, I can't pick up anything," she called up to Todoroki who built a quick ice ramp to get to the top of a building for higher ground.

"They're probably not on the ground then," Todoroki said, his eyes scanned the skies and he picked up on what looked like a black bird off in the distance. He squinted into the bright sky and the object was making a beeline for a crowd of people on the streets below, it swooped down to try and grab someone but the person ducked before and he barely missed. The man landed on the side of a building with two claws coming out from either wing, his ears were slightly pointed, and he was only in jeans and a t-shirt with a pair of red goggles covering his eyes. He shot back into the air and made a beeline for another crowd of people.

"Hey it's batman!" Kaminari yelled at the screen, laughing. The rest of class, minus Bakugo, chuckled.

"Actually it would probably be man-bat," Izuku muttered to himself while the class began to stare, "batman was 100% man who dressed like a bat and had no bat-like powers, he didn't even have a superpower he was just extremely good at martial arts and had incredible armor and tools while man-bat is a man with bat-like mutations including wings, hair, and ears much like that of a bat. While the villain does appear to be very humanlike, he was more bat features that would-"

"Shut up ya damn nerd!" Bakugo yelled from across the room, effectively silencing him.

"Jiro up ahead!" Todorki yelled and the class resumd watching the fight. She looked up and plugged her jacks into her boots, emitting low pulses created by her heartbeat and angled them up towards the unknown assailant. The winged human was hit with the sound wave and plummeted, crashing into the hard pavement about a hundred feet down the street. She plugged her earphone jack into the ground and made a ripple that pulsed through the pavement and caused the ground to crumble underneath the man-bat.

"Block him with your ice, I'll get people out of the way!" she shouted up at him and raced off to try and shield the escaping crowd from any more surprise attacks. Todoroki jumped off the building and created an ice ramp to skate down and around, effectively making a shield in front of the sidewalk to block the panicked people and store fronts. He skated closer to the villain who pushed away debris from Kyoka's attack, readjusted his goggles, and went to fly up. The half and half boy launched dozens of ice crystals out of his hand aiming for his wings, the villain swooped down and dodged the icy spikes while skimming across the ice, raking a claw from his left wing into the wall to try and break it. He was getting closer to Todorki who turned to blast a stream of fire at the man, he was confident in the thickness of his ice's wall so that it would protect anything or anyone behind it. The flames surrounded the bat and he closed his wings, wrapping himself in them, and let himself fall to the ground and out of the way of the fire. The villain dusted himself off and opened his mouth to let out a powerful high pitch screech, windows around the block shattered and people fell to the ground covering their ears. Todoroki could feel the ice crack beneath him and was knocked off due to the crumbling ramp and the intense noise, he rolled a couple feet on the crumbled ground before skidding to a halt.

Kyoka plugged her jacks into her boots and aimed them to the source of the noise, emitting a low pulse of her own. The two waves clashed and cancelled each other out while she stood in deadlock with the villain. Now on the pavement, Todorki brushed ice crystals off himself and made a path of ice on the ground leading to the bat. He stopped his screeching and flew into the air with a trail of ice in quick pursuit. The bat dove into a crowd of people and wrapped his talons around a girl with jet black hair pulled in a spikey ponytail. His sharp claws ripped into her skin and she cried out in pain as a stream of blood trickled down her arm. Kyoka and Todorki both froze.

"Momo!"

"Yaoyorozu!"

"Momo?!" the class turned and stared at their second in command who was absolutely stunned, and extremely red in the face.

"Well this is interesting," Midnight thought with a devilish smirk and the class erupted in murmurs.

"I mean she is Jiro's best friend," Tsu said tapping a finger to her chin, "it makes sense."

"But what if it was Todorki's thoughts?" the invisible girl asked with a shake of her skirt. Hagakure was one of two of the people who knew they hung out together at the Ennichi Festival, and if she wasn't invisible Momo would've been sure she was waggling her eyebrows. The idea that he was subconsciously thinking about her got her heart racing and she tried to keep her face neutral to the comment. She could see that the duo both had worried expressions although Todoroki's only lasted a second before it returned to his usual impassive face. The simulation Momo created a small metal rod from her dangling leg and with her free arm she bashed the man's knees with it. He cried out in pain and dropped her.

"At least the simulation made me capable," Momo muttered. She watched herself fall and saw Todoroki and Kyoka sprint towards where she would probably land.

"Jiro is really protective of Momo though so I could see it," Kaminari said.

"You know, I don't even think Todoroki can think like that, or have emotions in general," Sero said. The class couldn't hear the teammates plan over their talking, but Kyoka stopped to plug her earphone jack into her boots and lifted one leg to aim above Momo's falling body. With a click, she created a pulse of sound that knocked the villain out of the air and ran to apprehend him as he made a small crater in the ground. Todoroki froze over his path to move faster and reached out with a slight jump to catch Momo just in time. He pulled her into his chest and made a last effort to turn around before falling so his back would take the full force when the momentum carried them into his still standing ice wall. He braced for impact as they crashed with a thud, and he fell to one knee.

"Are you alright?" he asked, a little out of breath as he absenmindedly moved a stray piece of hair out of her face and stood back up, with her still tightly held in his arms, the simulation Momo nodded with heavy breathing, her face also lightly flushed.

"You were saying, Sero?" Uraraka giggled, their close interaction on full display.

"So chivalrous," Hagakure swooned, "I expect nothing less from a recommended student." The boys in the class were stunned, they never imagined that Todoroki had such a soft side to him. Momo felt her legs wobble a bit, he was so close as he was holding and talking to her, well not her, but totally her. While the class was focused on Todoroki's screen, they didn't notice Jiro's parents call out to her from a crowd of bystanders. She turned around and waved for half a second before both screens went black and the doors on the spheres opened.

"Very interesting," Midnight noted as she got up from behind the control panel and went to help the two participants out of their gear. She saw that the simulation still had one more part to the test, with the villain probably making one last comeback, and while she may love punishment she didn't want to humiliate a student like that. She helped Jiro out first who was still trying to piece together what just happened in the last second of the simulation. Todoroki was already out of his gear so she turned to address them and the class.

"You two rushed to fight a little bit in the beginning, but made a clear effort to keep bystanders safe. Well done." She walked back to the panel and hit one of the buttons, "Next up! Bakugo and Ashido, hop in." Bakugo grumbled and walked into the sphere while Mina danced over and hooked herself up. Midnight closed the doors with a smile, "Simulation Three begins, now!" and the screens flashed to life.

Momo paid no attention to the screen and Bakugo's yelling but watched Jiro say something to Todoroki, lightly punch him in the arm, then walk over to her best friend with a smirk, "Well that was fun."

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 **I had so much fun with this chapter, its a little short but I didn't want it to drag on.**

 **Anywho, thank you so so much to everyone who followed, favorited, and left a review! I really appreciate it. See ya next chapter and stay beautiful!**


	5. Scheming

**Hi guys! Thanks for all the lovely reviews, I always get excited when I see there's a new one!**

 **Anywho, here's the latest chapter, I just finished editing it a bit so I hope you enjoy!**

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 _"You like Momo, huh?" Jiro's voice stopped Shouto in his tracks. It was thankfully low enough so that no one could hear it over Bakugo's yelling. He turned around and saw her smirk at him with crossed arms._

 _"She's a classmate and a good friend," he tried to keep his usual neutral demeanor._

 _"Whatever you say, icy-hot," she lightly punched him in the arm and walked over to Momo who was staring hard at them._

 _"Shit."_

After all the students got a turn on the simulation they were sent off to their general study classes. Midnight was mostly proud of their effort with the exception of Bakugo's inability to work as a team and Mineta's overall creepy vibe. If she caught him trying to smell her boots one more time, she was going to lose it. The class shuffled to math class and let out a collective sigh at their return to general education classes. The bell rang and Ectoplasm, followed by the tiny principal entered.

"Good morning students!" the principal's chipper voice said. "After talking it over with the teachers, we've decided to try something new and exciting this year with you all."

"A class 1-A beach trip?" Mina asked.

"Shinier costumes?" Aoyama hoped aloud.

"Bikinis for the girl's school issued swimsuits?" Mineta silently begged.

"You are all going to participate in the school's first…" the class leaned closer in anticipation, "Science Fair!"

"So normal!" they all yelled in unison.

"Think of it as another Cultural Festival, except instead of culture, its science!" the principal said outstretching his arms in excitement.

"Is this mandatory?" Kaminari asked.

"Of course it is, Kaminari!" Iida yelled, chopping his hands through the air, "this is probably another test set up by U.A that'll teach us the values of becoming a hero. We must be able to save both the bodies and the minds of the civilians on the street!"

"Actually, we received a bit of backlash from the general public over your knowledge of general education so we want to showcase that you all are not only skilled heroes, but intelligent and diligent students." Iida's head fell at the principal's admission but his hands remained firmly in the air. "Alright that's all from me, Ectoplasm will explain the rest, thank you!" the small white creature exited the classroom and Ectoplasm cleared his throat a bit and turned around to write the details on the board.

"Much like your typical science fair you can work with one other person, but each project must be approved by me before you begin research." At the mention of working with another person, Shouto's eyes darted to Yaoyorozu who was busy scribbling down notes, the twisted feeling in his gut came back as he watched her smile to herself while writing in every open space left in her notes. He felt himself being stared at and looked down the row to see Jiro's eyes locked on him, a small smirk tugged at her usually downturned mouth. She turned back around to face the front after she appeared to confirm her suspicions. He released a quiet sigh and frowned, it would be his luck that the best friend of the girl he had feelings for caught on. The knot in his stomach tightened at the dramatized scenario his mind created of Jiro blabbing to Yaoyorozu about his feelings and her laughing, only stopping to politely reject him. He was pulled back to reality as Ectoplasm scraped a rather sharp piece of chalk against the chalk board.

"Try to incorporate your quirks into your project, as you will be judged by the teachers, the media, and your families as they will all receive an invitation." Shouto dreaded the idea of his dad going to a high school science fair, especially one that was only designed to stop people from complaining. They would probably complain more if they only taught students general education and not hero training too. Well they couldn't complain at all if they were killed by villains. He pushed aside the thoughts of his dad and decided to cross that bridge when he got there.

"Partners and projects are due by tomorrow so think wisely." Ectoplasm moved to the other side of the board, "Now onto some basic integrals."

By the time the bell rang Shouto noticed that people were already choosing their partners; Mina and Hagakure, Midoriya and Urakara, Kirishima and Bakugu, Tsu and Koda. He slowly packed up his things and watched as Jiro strolled up to Momo and stood in the empty space between the two, leaning against his desk.

"Hello, Kyoka," Momo smiled as she finally stopped writing down notes.

"Hey Momo, you have a partner for the science fair yet?"

"Oh no, I haven't thought that far ahead yet," Shouto snuck a glance at Momo's open notebook and noticed that some of her ideas had to do with fire and ice. Was she thinking about working with him? Or were those just ideas? The classroom started to feel very warm. "Do you have a partner?"

"Yeah, Kaminari asked me already, he said something about doing a music experiment which would be cool." Jiro kicked Shouto's leg and he shot a look at the back of her head, like she could see it, and resumed putting his things away, moving his legs to the far side of his desk. "It shouldn't be hard for you to find a partner though." At the mention of Momo not having a partner, Mineta's head swiveled around.

"I'll be your partner, Yaoyorozu," a dark aura radiated from his creepy smile, "I can think of lots of experiments we can do together." A look of horror and disgust washed over their faces and he was immediately shocked by one of Jiro's earphone jacks. The purple haired boy slowly withered back down into his seat.

"A competent partner," Jiro reiterated, kicking Shouto a little harder. Whatever was going on, he was not following and he had two bruises on his legs to prove it.

"You're right Kyoka. I look forward to seeing you and Kaminari's project." Momo leaned down and began to put her stuff away. One of Jiro's jacks poked Shouto in the side of the head as she walked back to her stuff and slung her backpack over her shoulder. He rubbed a now sore spot on his temple and grabbed his bag. He took a couple steps towards the door while the gears in his head finally clicked and he inwardly sighed turning back to Momo who was in the process of organizing her notes and handouts inside her bag.

"I don't mean to eavesdrop, but I also don't have a partner," he stood absolutely still, afraid that the slightest movement would reveal his nerves, and watched her look up in a bit of surprise, "if you would like to work together."

"Yeah, I would like to," she replied with a smile.

"Okay."

"Yeah." They stared at each other for a second.

"When would you like to discuss project ideas?" Shouto broke the silence.

"How about later tonight in the common room? Or if it's too noisy we could always go to my room," he felt his face heat up at her suggestion of the two alone and noticed her face matched the color of his hair but she quickly covered it with her hands. "I-I'm sorry Todoroki I didn't mean it like that, I just suggested it for privacy reasons," his eyes widened, "not that we would need privacy for what we would be doing, I-I um it's a quiet place to focus, but the common room should work just fine, sorry."

"Its fine, I'll see you later then," he headed out the door before she could see the redness of his face and while a little part of him hoped she was blushing because of him, he figured it was because most girls are so secretive of their room and the stigma around being alone with a boy could cause so much drama. "She's so polite, she probably doesn't want to give me the wrong idea," he thought to himself. Down the hallway he heard Jiro and Kaminari chatting on their way back to the dorms and he couldn't help but listen in a bit, they were so loud it would be hard not to.

"Hey sparky, you're my partner for the science fair," Jiro said.

"I thought you would want to work with Yaoyorozu?"

"She's already working with someone else and all the smart people were taken so I figured it wouldn't be the worst thing to get stuck with you," she said plainly.

"Don't say that like it's a bad thing!"

"We could do our experiment on how stupid you get when you shock yourself," she snickered. He tried to defend himself but Jiro just laughed even harder.

Shouto smiled, even though Jiro was so protective of Yaoyorozu, she helped him partner up with her. He didn't think of her as anything other than an acquaintance, but now he wishes he took the time to talk to more people during their first year, some of his classmates are more decent than he would have thought.

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 **Wooo its getting good now! I really enjoy reading all the cutesy warm fuzzy filled stories about these two, I always wondered why I get so hung up over fictional characters, I'm sure there's a psychological reason in there somewhere haha but I'm happy there's other people out there who feel the same or at least similar as I do. It's pretty neat.**

 **Whale thats enough blabbering out of me, thanks for reading, stay beautiful, and I'll see you next chapter!**


	6. A Work in Progress

**Happy Monday! Enjoy the latest chapter**

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Momo pulled a cream turtleneck sweater over her head and looked over herself in the mirror. "It's just a science project, nothing more," she said aloud. The clock in her room showed it being 6:54 pm, she told Todoroki they would meet up at 7 and she wanted to be early, but not too early. Even though they were only going to sit on the couches in the common area it was still polite to be punctual. She went to put her hair up in her signature ponytail, but admired how nice it looked let down and cascading over her shoulders and decided to keep it down.

"It's not a date," she reminded herself. After making one more glance over her reflection, she grabbed her notes and headed down to the first floor. The elevator doors slowly opened and she glanced around the common area, it was empty. This was unusual since 7pm was usually the time all the girls watched their favorite drama show. "Maybe they're all focused on their projects," Momo murmured, she walked around the couch to go sit down and nearly dropped her things when she saw Todoroki lying on the couch, looking up from his phone at her. He was in a black turtleneck sweater and a pair of jeans, a look she thought suited him quite well.

"Hey."

"Good evening, Todoroki," she tried to suppress the warm feeling in the pit of her belly. He swung his feet onto the ground and Momo took the gesture as an invite, sitting on the other side of the couch. She set her notes down in the empty space between them so it wouldn't seem awkward that she was sitting so far away. Maybe she shouldn't have worn the sweater, it was already starting to feel warmer.

"You've come prepared like always," he noted the pile of notebooks set in the middle cushion.

"Ah, yes I have several ideas for our project, but I would like to hear if you have any suggestions."

"I don't believe I would be much help, your ideas are far better than mine, Yaoyorozu," she could feel a knot form in her throat at the compliment.

"Of course!" she grabbed the first notebook from the pile and flipped through the pages. "Since this is due by the end of the week, we shouldn't pick a project that will take much time." Momo handed Todoroki the notebook opened to the page with all her ideas sketched around the margins. "I was thinking we could do something related to your ice, like compare its molecular structure and other properties to different kinds of ice such as ice cubes at different temperature, and snow. It would be easy and it would incorporate one of our quirks."

"What about your quirk?" he asked, reading over the page.

"My quirk isn't as flashy or interesting as yours," she smiled and looked down at her lap. There was still so much for her to learn to be on the same level as him.

"I wouldn't say that," he looked up from the page, Momo was unable to read what that little emotion was that flashed across his face, "your quirk is amazing."

"Thank you, Todoroki." He gave her the notebook back and pointed to a mess of words in the upper corner.

"That project could work." She smiled at the minimal description of her idea. Earlier that day while Ectoplasm was discussing the parameters of the project, Momo was scribbling down any and every possible idea that she could think of. She wanted the project to be big and to showcase that what she may lack in quirk strength, she makes up for in intelligence. "A building stress simulation is practical and can involve both of our quirks."

"Perfect! Its decided then," she closed her notebook, still beaming. She would never admit it to anyone, but she was thinking about partnering up with Todoroki while brainstorming science fair ideas. It was hard not to since he sat so close, that and she was pretty sure she saw him inside her simulation with Sero. They were up against a wind-based villain, and she knew it wasn't the tape boy's subconscious that caused Todoroki to be there. It was hers. That thought process inside the simulation almost caused her to be crushed by falling debris, but Sero pulled her out just in time and they eventually took down the woman wreaking havoc without a single bystander being injured. Midnight awarded them bonus points for that. When they got out Jiro and Mina asked about her "mental weakness" but she laughed it off and said she probably wasn't in long enough for it to appear, Mina seemed to believe her but Jiro wasn't as convinced.

"When do you want to begin?" his voice pulled her from her thoughts.

"Well, the girls are having a study group at nine so maybe tomorrow, same time as now?"

"That'll work," he looked at his phone, 7:55pm, "we can draw a quick layout of how we want to do this, if you would like."

"Yeah, I still have time!" she flipped open to a blank page in one of her notebooks and started to scribble a bunch of buildings in a mock city. After a few minutes she showed the sketch to Todoroki who let out a chuckle at her attempt. "Don't laugh!" she said and went to pull the drawing back, but he grabbed the notebook to prevent her from hiding it. Another light laugh escaped his lips and she went to give him a look, but he stopped with a smile still splayed on his face. Momo couldn't look away from the half and half boy, they've known each other for two years and yet she doesn't think she's ever heard him laugh. It was deep yet soft, like he was laughing for the first time and trying to get a hang of it.

"What are those supposed to be?" he pointed at two blobs on the paper near a crooked building that looked like it was drawn by a six-year-old.

"Those are us," she folded her arms over her chest, "testing the integrity of the buildings." He let out another brief laugh and she could feel the warmth in his voice.

"I figured you would be able to draw," he grabbed a pencil from Momo's pile of stuff on the middle cushion and ripped out the page leaving an empty sheet and started to draw, his eyes focused on the paper.

"And why is that?"

"Because you're good at everything," he said a little softer, not looking away from his sketch in progress.

"Thank you," she barely squeaked out, her stomach currently doing flips. A couple minutes passed in silence and he put down the pencil.

"Is this what you had in mind?" he leaned halfway into the middle cushion, placing his hand on the pile of notebooks to maintain his balance. With his other hand, he presented the notebook to her.

"Wow, I never knew you could draw!" the buildings were drawn to look 3-D with straight lines and perfectly angled windows, the sidewalk appeared proportional to the buildings and there was even a small park in the center of the make-shift town.

"It's just a hobby," he said. She moved in a little closer to get a better look at the buildings.

"We can start with a basic stress test on different materials then create multiple buildings with different infrastructures made from the top materials to see which building and style can best hold up against the most force and quirk-based damage." She noticed two people in front of the buildings and leaned closer to the middle cushion, putting her hand down unknowingly right next to his. "Who are they supposed to be?"

"Us," he replied evenly. They weren't half bad for being only quick sketches, he drew them in their hero outfits, but without any color or shading they looked odd against the other 3-D objects. She giggled and turned to say something but lost all train of thought when her face stopped only a few inches away from his.

Their eyes locked and she could feel the heat radiate from his left side. Having never been this near to him or any boy before she was now close enough so that she could see every small detail of his face. She wondered if his skin was soft, if his hair was soft, her eyes drifted down to his lips and she swallowed hard as the same trail of thought danced through her head. Like gravity, Momo felt herself being pulled to him, she closed her eyes and tilted her head a little bit like how she saw couples do in movies during their first kiss. Closer. Closer. Closer.

Her hand slipped forward and bumped into his. The sudden contact jolted the two frazzled teenagers upright and they quickly scooted back to their respective sides of the couch red in the face. They both turned to say something but stopped halfway turning to look at anything but each other.

"I'm sorry," Todoroki said first, his voice devoid of any emotion.

"No, don't be," Momo said, not daring to look back at him.

"I shouldn't have been so close to you and I apologize," his voice was even. Momo clenched her hands and sat there in silence. "It's almost nine, we can finish up planning tomorrow if you would like."

"Yeah, we can do that," she quickly gathered all her things, still not looking at him, and stood up. "Goodnight, Todoroki," she said politely and hurried out of the room.

"Goodnight, Yaoyorozu."

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 **So odd enough, a very similar thing happened to me back in the day haha that's sort of where I got this inspiration from, my experience had a sadder outcome though, but this story won't be like that. I'm not that mean.**

 **Anywho thanks for reading and stay beautiful**


	7. Girls Night

**Happy Tuesday! (or whatever day of the week you're reading this)**

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Hurried footsteps glided down the hallway, a slender finger shakily pressed the up arrow, the elevator door to the girl's dorms slowly opened and Momo fled inside. She leaned against the back wall of the elevator and slid down to the floor feeling the cool metal through her sweater. Much like the rest of her body, she also felt her heart sink. She knew such a concept was physically impossible, but that didn't stop the ache from resonating within her gut. A familiar sting crept up as a few tears built up in her eyes. He apologized for being close, did that mean he didn't want to be? It was impossible to tell by his face or his voice how he was feeling, but she felt humiliated. Did he change the topic so that she wouldn't be embarrassed? The elevator stopped and she scrambled to her feet, blinking away the tears. A tissue appeared from the back of her hand and she gently wiped away the stray tears that escaped down her cheeks.

The doors opened and she was thankfully alone on floor five. Notebooks in one hand, tissues in the other, she quickly entered her room and was thankful she had enough time to calm down before heading to Hagakure's room for studying. She shed her sweater and jeans, replacing them with a red tank top and plaid pajama pants. Slipping on a silk black robe she gathered her study materials and headed back to the elevator. Maybe it was a good thing Todoroki subtly rejected her, now she can get back to more important things like studying and training without him always being on her mind. The low hum of the gears pulled her into a trance as she closed her eyes, and the gentle lull of the cheesy elevator music almost made her forget about her blunder in the common room. Almost.

"Momo! How's partnering with cutest boy in class?" She was not going to forget any time soon. She opened her eyes and they focused on a bright pink blob peering out of Hagakure's room down the hall.

"It's going well," she forced a small smile and walked into the extremely pink room. The rest of the girls were already there, also in their pajamas with notes sprawled all over the floor and table. Urakara and Tsu were chatting on the bed while Kyoka and Hagakure were sitting around the table.

"Well everyone's here, so let's start!" the invisible girl announced. She was clad in a pink tank top and shorts that matched the room so well she could lie down and disappear. "I vote we start with modern literature!"

"Second that," Mina said. She sat down next to Kyoka and opened her notes. "Momo did you finish the Great Gatsby yet?"

"Yes, several times actually," she sat down and leaned against the soft bed.

"So studious!" Mina yanked out her blank study guide and slapped it on the table, "I need help on all of it."

"Yeah I don't get it either, how can it be modern if it was written before quirks were around?" Hagakure added, also taking out a blank study guide.

"It's a classification, such as modern art. Like right now we're in post-modern literature," Momo said. She pulled out her completed study guide and glanced over the questions as a quick refresher. They all received a list of required novels at the beginning of the year and Momo was close to finishing all of them and their respective study guides. She wasn't trying to get ahead, she just really enjoyed reading and sometimes she needed a break from her chemistry or materials books. "Shall we start with chapter one's questions?"

An hour and a dozen questions later, Momo felt confident in their growing comprehension of the hidden elements within The Great Gatsby and voted to move on to math, where everyone seemed to have troubles, herself included.

"Integrals are hard!" Uraraka groaned and flopped back on the bed. Tsu nodded in agreement.

"This is probably why we have to do that science fair," Kyoka grumbled, scratching out another failed attempt at a problem.

"Oh yeah! How's everyone's project coming along?" Uraraka sat up with a big grin.

"Sounds like break time," Mina tossed her notebook behind her, "we'll share first!"

"Mina and I are doing a social experiment on how people perceive cute!" Hagakure and Mina high fived. "We might need you guys to help us though, we need participants."

"That sounds adorable, we'd all love to help!" Uraraka answered for everyone as they nodded.

"What are you and Midoriya doing?" Mina waggled her eyebrows.

"Oh!" the perky girl's face turned crimson, "just a simple gravity experiment, you know, testing terminal velocity and all that fun stuff." The girls nodded in approval and turned to Jiro.

"It's nothing big, Kaminari and I are just seeing how waves and electricity pass through different materials. I feel like we need to make it flashier though."

"I'm sure you'll think of something!" Momo said.

"Yeah, Ectoplasm will probably have suggestions," Hagakure added. She looked up at the frog girl, "Tsu?"

"Koda and I are doing an animal behavior experiment. Comparing people with animal quirks to their respective animals."

"That sounds really cool!" Uraraka said, her hands clenched in fists and her face getting intense.

"How about you, Momo?" Kyoka asked raising an eyebrow. Momo felt her face heat up and hid behind her calculus notebook trying to play it off as her writing something down.

"Todoroki and I are-" she coughed a little to try and get rid of her shaky voice, "we are going to make a model city with buildings made of different materials, such as cement, iron, titanium, then test each building using different quirks to see which is the strongest. We'll be recreating the tests at the science fair so parents and the media will be able to see our quirks in action."

"Wow."

"That's so cool."

"I expect nothing less from recommended students."

"Ribbit." It was quiet for a few moments.

"So what's it like working so close with Todoroki?" it was on everyone's mind, but Mina was the one who blurted it out. Momo took a deep breath to try and compose herself, he was nothing more than a silly crush, she lowered the notebook putting all her faith in her poker face.

"He's not very talkative, but he is helpful," she used every ounce of willpower to suppress the burning feeling in her stomach. She looked down at her notes and smiled at the scribbled description of their project in the margin. The smile didn't go unnoticed and the other girls shared a knowing look. "He's also really good at drawing and has this odd sense of humor…" she trailed off thinking about how unexpressive his face and voice were, he couldn't possibly like her in that way. Her smile faded and the familiar prickly feeling returned to her eyes.

"Momo?" her head shot up and she put on her best smile.

"Sorry, I lost my train of thought!" she laughed it off and closed her notebook, the rest of the girls exchanging looks. "Well that's enough studying for me, I still need to do my nightly material composition reading."

"Goodnight, Momo!" they all said in unison. Momo gathered her things and gave one last wave before heading out to the elevator. She knew it was a little early to leave their weekly study sessions, but she didn't feel like answering any more questions. Especially ones about her stoic partner. The elevator doors slowly slid open and she stepped inside, the same music from earlier hummed in the background. A small ding woke her from her daze and she slowly walked to her dorm where she gently plopped her books and notebooks onto her desk. Pulling off her robe, she rolled into bed and pulled out one of her chemical composition books.

"He's just a boy," she quoted her mother, flipping a page.

"A distraction." Another page.

"An obstacle on my path to becoming a pro-hero." Page flip.

"I don't need anyone except myself to be happy." She slammed the book shut. She hadn't heard those words in a long time, and though they may seem inspirational they were always said to her with stern voices and a hint of disappointment. The first time she heard it was after her mother refused to let her go to the movies with her classmates and Momo begged because a boy she thought was cute was going. The second thru twelfth time was when a boy confessed to her by either buying her a present or leaving her a note. Momo would try and tuck them away in her backpack, but somehow they would always be found and she'd receive a lecture about how they're no good for her.

Each time Momo would try and defend the guy, her mother would find everything that was bad about them. The way they dressed, their social media, their grades, their useless quirk, it was unbelievable how much could be wrong with every person, but it always came down to the 'he's not good enough for you' followed by a loving pat on the hand. Of course she would listen, this was her mother after all, mothers always know best.

She flopped back into her bed and was enveloped by pillows. He wasn't just a boy though, he's not a distraction, not a major one anyways, he's not an obstacle, and if anything, he makes her happier. Her mother would be lucky if she could find one thing wrong with him. Maybe the apology wasn't a rejection, maybe there's a sliver of a chance that he does share her feelings. Maybe. Until she knows for sure she's just going to have to pretend that they're just friends and that everything is peachy. That should be easy enough, right?

 **Meanwhile:**

"Operation get Momo and Todoroki together is a go!" Mina squealed.

"I never knew Todoroki thought about things like that, ribbit."

"I always had a hunch, the strong silent types are always so romantic," the invisible girl was splayed out on the floor, not that anyone could really tell.

"I'm sure he's more complex than a typical date-a-sim character trope," Uraraka said.

"You're right, but Kyoka don't you think we should tell Momo about this? Are we sure she likes him?"

"You saw her face when she was talking about him, it's like when Uraraka talks about Midoriya," the girls all giggled at Uraraka's obvious blush, "but we should keep this between us, I'm sure she already has a hunch so we don't want her to freak out and ruin it for herself. We do need to be subtle though," she glanced at Mina and Hagakure, "you can't go telling the boys we're trying to set those two up."

"Why not?"

"Would you really trust guys like Kaminari or Bakugo with this?" Jiro raised an eyebrow.

"Right."

"Yep."

"No boys."

"Ribbit."

"Great, so here's my plan…"

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 **Woop there it is. I hope you liked it!**

 **Thanks for all the favorites, reviews, and follows!**

 **See ya beautiful people next chapter!**


	8. Fire and Ice

**Oh hi there! Sorry for the irregular posting, I promise to try and have a more regular posting schedule! Anywho, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.**

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The sound of a heartbeat echoed through the room accompanied by steady breathing. Shouto rolled over and glanced at his phone, 2:36 am. His dorm was almost silent but the pounding coming from his chest was deafening. He sat up to stretch, running a hand through his disheveled hair, if he couldn't sleep at least he could find something productive to do. Settling on doing a quick workout in the grass outside where he figured no one would notice him and he wouldn't be bothered. The light from the bathroom almost blinded him and he smoothed out his hair the best he could before splashing a bit of cool water on his sleepless face.

After pulling on a white t-shirt and U.A's training pants he calmly walked to the elevator as if being up at 3 am was a regular thing for him. The elevator's subtle music put caused him to zone out staring at the reflection of himself in the metal doors. For hours he had been analyzing his earlier interaction with Yaoyorozu on the common room couch and every time he closed his eyes to try and sleep, she would be there. Her beautiful eyes, flawless skin, and soft lips leaning ever so close to him. He wasn't even entirely sure her lips were soft, but he figured since the rest of her was, her lips had to be too. He wondered what they felt like, what they tasted like, he was so close earlier if only he-

The elevator dinged, and he was abruptly pulled from his thoughts. The metal doors slid open and he was thankful no one else was down here, they would ask all sorts of questions and he wasn't particularly keen on answering any. He never really was, but tonight was especially bad. The cool night air tickled his face as he wandered outside to the back grassy area. Looking up at the starlit sky he decided this would be a good place to work and he began to practice his form. Shouto slowly moved his arms, focusing on the motions and feeling the power of each quirk surge under his skin. The hairs on his right arm stood up when he made a slow movement to shoot ice but repressed the actual action in case he accidently woke someone up or destroyed something. He moved his left arm in a similar fashion and could feel the heat escaping through the pores of his skin.

The rhythm of the slow movements lulled him into a trance, every now and then an image of Yaoyorozu would move into his head and he would feel the fire and ice in his arms intensify. He would push it aside for a little while but a different one would creep its way in. The latest one was a re-cap of their couch encounter, right down to the part where she closed her eyes and moved in. He was very thankful she couldn't see how nervous and shaky he was, if she leaned in that must've meant she wanted to kiss him, but he had no idea how to. Well he did know how, two people's lips touch, boom, that's a kiss, but there's always more to it. He's seen movies, the guy always does something with the girl's face whether it's holding her cheek or brushing a stray hair from her face or they say something cheesy and sweet. Unlike him who sat there dumbstruck and unable to move.

The power of his quirk began to intensify again, and he had to regain focus, breathing a little deeper than before. Shouto returned to mediation but the image of Yaoyorozu on the couch looking embarrassed and almost sad pulled him away from any thoughts of training. Hell, he was extremely embarrassed too, but she looked genuinely upset. Maybe she regretted it? Even though he had no clue why she looked sad, his first instinct was to apologize in case it was because of him. But being polite as always, she brushed it off. He cursed himself for not pressing further, but feelings were his weak point, and so he changed the subject. She didn't press further either so maybe it was just a mistake. They were here to become heroes, not to find a significant other. Crushes were only a distraction. Berating himself didn't work because Yaoyorozu kept filling his mind. Holding her bridal style in the simulation, her fighting villains in her hero uniform, imaginary scenarios of them kissing.

The rising sun pricked at his eyes and he opened them into the early light. It was probably close to five or six now and he figured he should get back to bed before the others see him. He took a step back and felt a crunch. Looking down and behind him, he saw most of the lawn and the entire back wall of their dormitory covered in a sheet of his ice.

"Perfect," he muttered, beginning to melt the ice, "first I can't control my thoughts and now my quirk." With the ice mostly melted, the sleep deprived teen headed back to his room for a much-needed shower and a change of clothes. The common area was still empty, light barely streaming in from the windows giving the room an almost eerie and otherworldly feeling. He stopped by the fridge for a bottle of water and heard the elevator make a small ding. He couldn't tell which elevator it was but judging by the soft footsteps it was either a girl or Mineta sneaking around. He was hoping it was the latter, so he could freeze the little creep. Grabbing an unopened bottle, he closed the fridge and met eyes with none other than Yaoyorozu.

"Naturally," he thought to himself. Judging by the state of her pajamas and hair, she clearly just woke up, but he noted that in this state she extremely looked beautiful. Her eyes were only half-opened, raven hair in a messy ponytail, her cheeks a tinge of red which matched her tank top that was currently riding up revealing a small section of her stomach. He swallowed hard and looked back up to her face, her eyes now very wide. "Good morning, Yaoyorozu."

"Good morning, Todoroki," she replied looking away.

"You're up early."

"I could say the same for you."

"I try to get up early to do a few workouts," an obvious lie but his tone of voice gave nothing away. "Why are you awake?"

"Ah that's good, um I was pretty hungry so I wanted to grab a snack," she walked a little closer to him and the fridge. He politely backed away and set his water bottle on the counter, noting that it was now frozen solid. He watched her slowly rummage through the fridge, eventually pulling out a cup of yogurt, orange juice, a packet of string cheese, and a small container of fruit salad. She looked a little embarrassed holding the armful of food and she scurried to one of the tables. Returning to a drawer by the fridge to grab a spoon and a cup. Watching the back of her head while she ate, he desperately wanted to say something, but nothing came out. Giving up was not his style so he decided on trying to force himself to converse with her and walked over to the table where she was sitting.

"May I?" he asked, pulling out a chair diagonal to her. She nodded with a mouthful of yogurt and they sat for a minute in silence.

"About yesterday," Yaoyrozu began, putting the spoon in the empty yogurt container. She lifted her eyes to his and he felt a bit of his soul leave his body.

"Yes, I feel we should discuss that," he nodded and hid his hands under the table.

"We never discussed where or when we would be meeting up today." He was not expecting that. "I'm alright with the common area again."

"Yes, that'll work," he tried to read her face but she looked very normal and almost bubbly, "we should finish up planning."

"Good!" she smiled and poured a cup of orange juice. Maybe she did feel that last night was a mistake, and he felt a slight ache in his chest at the idea. Thoughts were swirling in his head, he wasn't thinking very clearly but he had to know what she felt, even if it was nothing. If she did reject him it would be better to just rip the band-aid off now.

"Yaoyorozu," his voice came off colder than he wanted. Her eyes darted up mid mouthful and she tilted her head a little, "about yesterday." He mimicked her words and watched her quickly swallow the mouthful of fruit salad.

"What about it?" her voice still sounded normal and chipper, but there was a slight shake in it.

"I-"

"Wow! You two are up early!" Midoriya walked into the room, a towel hung over his shoulders and his green mess of hair still dripping. He had a protein shake in one hand and his phone in the other. They looked to each other then to Midoriya then back to each other. Yaoyorozu gave him a half smile and went to stand up.

"Good morning, Midoriya," Yaoyorozu said, gathering the empty food containers, "I was just leaving." She returned the orange juice to the fridge, placed the dishware in the sink, and quietly left the room. As soon as Shouto heard the ding from the elevator he let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and relaxed his fists.

"Are you alright, Todoroki?"

"Yes, I was leaving too." He stood and headed to the elevator carrying the once frozen water bottle, now bubbling inside, and leaving behind a very confused green haired boy.

Shouto took the coldest shower he could managed before getting dressed. It was already 6:45 and he did not feel like being late to homeroom, nobody wanted Aizawa's punishment. Grabbing his bag and a clean pair of workout clothes, he headed back down and out to class. He assumed everyone already left by now and was thankful for a quiet walk. Making it to class with a few minutes to spare, he sat down in his usual seat next to Yaoyorozu who was busy writing.

It was still bothering him that she seemed to act like nothing happened between them, he did do the exact same thing right after it happened though so he couldn't be that bothered. It could be possible that she is just as flustered as him by the whole situation, but this was Yaoyorozu. She's beautiful and intelligent, after their first year at U.A, it would be impossible for her to not have had dozens of guys asking her out. He felt anxious thinking about her going on dates with anyone, especially guys that were beneath her talent level, and a little sick over thoughts of them kissing her.

"Todoroki?" Shouto glanced over and the raven haired girl was watching him with concern. He blinked and looked around, the rest of the class was turned and staring at him too. Without realizing it, he froze his desk and the floor around it.

"Fuck," he muttered and slowly started to melt the ice away, leaving a puddle of water on his desk that dripped onto the wet floor.

"Jeez Todoroki, are you feeling alright?" Sero asked.

"Do you need to go to Recovery Girl?" Mina chimed in.

"I'm fine," he said rather coldly. The class took the hint and turned back around, while Jiro exchanged glances with Mina. He felt a soft tap on his shoulder and looked over to his seat mate. Her uniform jacket was unbuttoned and she was holding a small white towel out to him. He took it from her and nodded in thanks, wiping up his desk before sliding it on the floor around him. With the floor dry, he balled up the damp towel and shoved it in his desk, reminding himself to take it out before he leaves. As he was hiding the towel, Aizawa came in, his long dark hair messy as usual.

"Morning."

"Good morning," the class replied.

"Until you all present your science fair projects at the end of the week, we're going to be putting a hold on hero training."

"What?!" the class replied again.

"You may train on your own, but per the principal's request this will be our priority." His eyes shifted around the room, "I hope you all understand what kind of position U.A is put in and will take this seriously."

"Yes, sensei," another unison reply.

"Class dismissed, go talk to Ectoplasm about your topics then get started on them," he left the classroom with his scarf fluttering behind him.

"Man, U.A must be under some serious fire if they're holding off on hero training," Kaminari said, leaning back in his chair, the other students nodded.

"It's probably because they saw your test scores," Jiro quipped. The class laughed and the electro boy got flustered trying to defend himself.

"You heard Aizawa!" Iida announced, breaking up the laughter, "Let's all head to Ectoplasm together and present our ideas!" The room erupted in chatter as everyone reached for their bags and headed out the door. Shouto was the last out, shoving the towel he quickly heated up to dry into his bag. He closed the oversized door behind him and walked a few feet behind everyone else, content with being alone in silence. The class crowded around Ectoplasm's office and he made ten of himself to talk to each group individually.

"Get with your partners, anyone who doesn't have a partner or a project will have one assigned," the original Ectoplasm said. Shouto was still in the back of the crowd, waiting until it dispersed to find his partner.

"Ah, Todoroki, there you are!" Yaoyorozu's voice danced in his ears. He nodded and remained silent, watching a clone come up to the two with a clipboard.

"Todoroki and Yaoyorozu," he wrote down their names and looked to the duo, "what project did you decide on?" Yaoyorozu took the lead explaining the project in very fine detail, she must've been brainstorming more. The icy-hot boy watched her face light up as she explained how their quirks would be used, the practicality of the project, and how their education would be put on display. The clone nodded his head and continued to scribble down notes. His face was impossible to read but his voice seemed proud.

"I have no suggestions for you two, it appears you already have a very well-rounded project and a good idea on how to tackle it." Shouto saw how the creation hero beamed at the compliment. "Since our primary focus is the fair at the end of the week, you both are dismissed to begin working on it."

The pair bowed and left, they were the first ones cleared to continue their project, he noticed a few groups were assigned a project while others were taking notes on what their specific clone was telling them. He was lucky to be Yaoyorozu's partner for more reason than one.

"I didn't expect to get the day to work on this," she broke him out of his thoughts.

"It's nice."

"Yeah, I'm hoping it turns out as well as I envisioned it."

"I have no doubt it will, it was a great idea," he noticed a light blush on her cheeks from the straightforward compliment.

"Thank you, Todoroki."

"Mhm."

The remaining walk back to the dorm was quiet, but neither seemed to mind. It was nice being the only people in the dormitory, no one was shouting, the tv wasn't turned on to max volume, and food wasn't being thrown around. It was peaceful. They both opted to sit at the table this time, Shouto reasoned they would have more space to work and Yaoyorozu agreed, choosing to sit across from him.

"We can pick up where we left off," she smiled and reached into her bag. Pick up where they left off. He found himself thinking of her lips again and waved off the thought, he was doing so well as to not think about her like that. He would eventually have to confront these emotions but today was definitely not that day, he got interrupted once and was lucky it was only Midoriya, he didn't want to risk someone else hearing. Especially if he got rejected.

"Yeah," he zoned back in and pulled out his notebook.

"Perfect, so firstly, how large should we make this model city?" Shouto thought about it for a minute, thinking back to what Kaminari said earlier.

"As big as we can. If U.A is being judged on this then we should blow everyone out of the water." She nodded in agreement and wrote out some dimensions, sliding the paper over to his side.

"Like this then?"

"Exactly," he was surprised at how big she was willing to go, the highest tower would be a little taller than him so people would actually be able to walk through their make-shift city.

"It might take a little bit to build though," she rubbed the back of her head, "I'll definitely need to eat a lot." He thought back to earlier in the morning and how much she was eating, maybe she was creating things last night.

"We can go out and get food whenever you're hungry then," he said without blinking.

"Oh no Todoroki, it'll be fine," she politely waved him off, "I usually make my own food, it's easier for when I use my quirk a lot."

"One day this week then," he insisted in his usual calm voice, he felt bad they were relying so much on her quirk for this and he wanted some way to repay her, it didn't cross his mind that he was asking a girl out for dinner.

"I suppose one night wouldn't hurt," she muttered, tapping a finger to her chin. "Alright, it's a date then!" He froze at the mention of the word 'date' she didn't seem phased by the choice wording at all.

"Date?" he tried to calmly ask but he could feel his heart pound against his chest.

"Yeah, friends go on dates all the time!" and as quickly as his heart began to pound, it stopped and fell. How could a voice so sweet hurt that much?

"Yes of course." He's heard about mixed signals before, specifically from Kaminari over Jiro, but he never imagined them being this confusing and almost infuriating. He felt there was more between them besides just friendship, maybe he was misinterpreting? But what friend goes to kiss another friend?

"Let's get started by making some basic beams to test their strength!" She stood up and shed her uniform jacket and began to unbutton her white shirt right in front of him. Shouto's ears burned and he went to look away, but her shirt opened to reveal a black tank top. How she doesn't get hot in three layers is a mystery. A bright glow came from her shoulder and she pulled out a foot-long metal beam. She gently set it on the table and another glow came from her other arm. Five minutes and lots of glowing later, the table had eight different beams on it. He always admired her quirk, while his tended to destroy things, hers created anything limited only by her knowledge.

"Where do you want to test these?" she grabbed a few off the table and walked to the door.

"Let's go outside so you can safely use your quirk on them." He gathered the remaining beams and followed her out the door. She unceremoniously dropped them on the ground and he mimicked her actions. The beams clanked together before settling in a small pile. "Oh, we can't forget to record our findings!" She pulled a small pencil and piece of paper on a clipboard from her leg and then moved the beams to all be in an orderly line. Putting little markers in front of each one so they would know which beam is made of which material, she took a couple steps back and nodded to Shouto.

"Ice first."

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 **The story is finally starting to heat up a bit (no pun intended) I'm really excited for the next chapter, I got some extra fluff prepared!**


	9. That's Cute

**Happy Saturday! I just finished watching the newest episode and wowzers. So much action! I'm really excited fort he upcoming arc too.**

 **Anyways, enjoy the chapter! It's less fluffy than I intended but the fluff will come!**

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 **Chapter 9**

Momo already knew which materials would be the best for their miniature city, but for the sake of science and looking good on paper, she opted to test them. It was also partly because she loved seeing Todoroki's quirk in action. Ice would dance out of his finger tips and cascaded over the beams, while fire burst out of his hand and blankets the beams in the orange and red flames. She was so distracted by the small performance in front of her, she almost forgot to write down notes.

"Looks like we have the winners!" Momo smiled, it wasn't actually that hard trying to be just friends with him. True, she nearly fell over when he asked to buy her dinner, but she thought she played it off pretty well by establishing it as nothing more than a friend date. Friends go on dates too.

"Yeah." His face was unreadable as usual, so she assumed he was as pleased with the results as she was. They took a few pictures and were picking up the few charred but mostly intact beams when the front door swung open and an entourage of their classmates loudly walked in.

"Want to call it a day?" Shouto nodded. "Great, we can start building small scale models tomorrow if you'd like?" Another nod. They walked to the large trash can out front in silence and threw the scrap pile away.

"When would you like to go on that date?" Hearing him call it a date, even though it was just as friends, caused her mind to go blank, is this what Kaminari feels like after using his quirk? She should have never called it a date to begin with, it only gave her false hope about him possibly liking her back. Saying it was a date was just a force of habit, as she does when her and Jiro go out, but he seemed confused about the idea, maybe he had never gone on a date before. It was hard for Momo to believe that due to the sheer number of girls throwing themselves at him. The reminder of all his admirers put a sour taste in her mouth. "Yaoyorozu?"

"Yes?" she returned to the conversation at hand, a little embarrassed she zoned out right on front of him. "Oh, right! Yeah, how about Friday after the fair? It'll be a great way to celebrate!" He nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"What time would you like to work on the project tomorrow?"

"I'm not sure yet," a little lightbulb went off in her head and she pulled out her phone, "put in your number and I can text you when I check my schedule." To be honest, she had her entire schedule memorized, but he didn't have to know that. It was about time they exchanged contact information, they've been classmates for two years now and still don't have each other's phone numbers. He slowly pulled a hand from his pocket and typed in his number with the other hand still stuffed into his pocket.

"See you tomorrow then," he handed her phone back and quickly walked to the front door. Momo was surprised at how cold her phone was, he only held it for a few seconds, but that thought left when she saw his number on her phone screen. She beamed at the success of her little plan and after hitting 'save', walked over to the front door.

"Momo!" Mina called from down the street. Momo turned around with her hand still on the front door handle and waved at the pink girl who was holding a box. "Want to help us with our science project?" As she got closer she noticed the floating uniform next to her.

"It'll be super quick, we promise!" the invisible girl said.

"Of course! I have the rest of the day free." They walked into the common room and waved to the few pairs that got the thumbs up from Ectoplasm.

"Great! I just have to print out the questionnaires and then we're good, meet us up in Mina's room!" The elevator doors opened, and the girls walked inside.

"I'll change then come down." Mina and Hagakure left with a little wave and Momo could see them walk into the room as the metal doors slid shut. The rest of the ride up was quiet

"The door's unlocked!" Hagakure's bright voice called from inside. Momo opened the door and saw the two girls sitting in desk chairs writing on a pad of paper.

"Sit on the pillow, please!" Mina said. She pointed to the pink pillow on the ground by the table, facing the two. Momo nodded and sat on the plush pillow, in front of her was a piece of paper face down and a pencil.

"We're going to show you a little slide show of timed pictures to observe how you perceive 'cute'," Mina got up and rummaged through the box she was carrying earlier and pulled out a small gadget with buttons on it. "After each picture you're going to respond to the questions on the paper in front of you." She attached a wire to her laptop and then pulled a grey finger pulse monitor from the box and hooked that up.

"Ectoplasm suggested we make it a bit more scientific, so we borrowed Recovery Girl's portable heart monitor to see how the body is affected," Hagakure continued.

"There's about 15 pictures so it'll go super quick!" Mina beamed. Hagakure placed her laptop on the table in front of Momo and clicked a button. A welcome slide showed up and prompted the 'participant' to flip over the paper. Momo flipped it over and quickly scanned the questions. The first one prompted her to rate her mood currently. She jotted down "average". The slide show continued and the first picture was a plain red brick house. Momo looked down at the questions.

 _How much did this picture affect you physically?_ -not at all

 _How much did this picture effect you emotionally?_ -not at all

 _Which emotion(s) did you feel the most and how intense on a scale of 0-5 (0 being lowest) would you rate it?_ -calmness 2

Two more house pictures later, an image of a small black kitten curled up napping popped up. She smiled at its cute pink nose and tiny ears.

 _How much did this picture affect you physically?_ -a decent amount

 _How much did this picture effect you emotionally?_ -a good deal

 _Which emotion(s) did you feel the most and how intense on a scale of 0-5 (0 being lowest) would you rate it?_ -happiness-4, excitement-3

The next few pictures were of adult animals, baby animals, or just regular babies. Except for the adult animals, which she scored a few points less, she scored the babies and baby animals all relatively high. Question ten was a picture of the girls in their class posing in their costumes from last Halloween. Momo giggled and jotted down her answers. The next one was of the entire class from their first year, and while it may not have been cute, it still brought back strong memories. They would probably get docked for having a bias in their study.

Picture eleven featured only the guys in their swimsuits. Momo thought nothing of it, she's seen them shirtless all the time, but then her eyes scanned over a certain boy with red and white hair standing in the back with his well-defined arms folded over his chiseled chest and she felt her face burn up. She sucked in a quick breath at how intensely he was staring at the camera, his eyes seemed to be looking directly into her. Looking down at the questions, she regretted saying she would help.

"You can be as honest as you want, Momo, these answers are going to be anonymous," Mina said from her chair. She breathed a sigh of relief and wrote down a simplified version of her feelings. What teenage girl wouldn't find fourteen shirtless and muscular guys a little cute?

If picture eleven knocked the wind out of her then the next one hit her like a truck. It was Todoroki. Just Todoroki. It must've been during a workout because he was in a fighting stance and his blue and grey eyes seemed intently focused on what was just off to the side. His U.A training jacket was shed so he was only in his white tank top while a small stream of ice appeared to be coming from his foot. He looked so natural and even though he was fighting, he seemed so calm. His hair was blown back ever so slightly, and she could see the white and red half blend with each other. The amazing camera focus let her make out the barely-there smile forming on his lips. Momo could stare at this picture all day, but the screen went black and she was left blinking away the intense feeling that surged through her.

 _How much did this picture affect you physically?_ \- not much

"-be honest-" Mina's words echoed in her mind and she erased her answer.

 _How much did this picture affect you physically?_ – a lot

 _How much did this picture effect you emotionally?_ – a lot

 _Which emotion(s) did you feel the most and how intense on a scale of 0-5 (0 being lowest) would you rate it?_ – admiration-5, happiness-5, nervousness-3, fondness-5

Momo could write down words for hours, but the next picture appeared. After the last two pictures went by, she answered the follow up question about her mood post-test and wrote down "flustered". The picture of Todoroki, though only for three seconds, seemed to be permanently burned into her brain. Not that it was a bad thing, but she thought she was going to be able to slowly put those feelings to rest. Mina was smiling wide when Momo handed her the paper.

"Thanks for your help!"

"Yeah, it'll be exciting to see the results!" Hagakure said. "We can take the heart monitors off of you now, and then you're good to go!" Momo forgot about those and grew red at how fast her heart was beating when she saw Todoroki's picture.

"Thanks again, Momo! The next participant should be outside if you could send him in!"

"Yeah of course, I'm happy to help," she gave the duo a sweet smile and went out into the hallway to find the guy who was going next.

"Yaoyorozu?" Of course it would be him. She glanced down at Todoroki who was sitting on the carpet and leaning against the cream colored wall. He was in a white tank top and his U.A blue training pants, just like that picture. But as incredible as it was, it did no justice to seeing him in person. She wondered what he would look like if he fully smiled, he would probably look handsome like always.

"Are you the next participant?" she broke herself from those thoughts.

"Yeah, Mina texted me and I figured I would help," he sighed, "I'm not the best with emotions though."

"That's very nice of you, Todoroki, and I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Thanks, I'll try my best."

"You always do," she beamed. He slowly stood up and Momo followed his movements, soon finding herself looking up into his captivating eyes. She shouldn't be close enough to see the pattern that his scarred skin forms around his eye. She shouldn't be close enough to notice the way he subtly licks his slightly chapped lips. She definitely shouldn't be close enough to feel the heat coming from his body and smell the earthy cologne he was wearing. Friends wouldn't be this close to each other, but here she was. And that's when the light bulb in her head didn't just go off, it shattered. She didn't want to be just friends with him.

Once again, she felt gravity pulling her closer to him. With a shaky hand she reached up to brush the strands of red hair hanging over his ice blue eye. As her hand swept away his hair, it grazed against the unexpectedly smooth skin of his scar. She felt him flinch beneath her touch but he didn't back away, and his eyes widened in surprise but were locked onto her onyx gaze. His hair was softer than she imagined as it brushed over the back of her hand and she let her fingertips glide down the side of his face coming to rest at the lower part of his jaw. He licked his lips again and she could feel her fingers heat up as they lingered on his skin.

"Yaoyorozu?" Todoroki's voice cracked a bit and pulled her out of her daze.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!" Momo yanked her hand back and ran off, leaving behind a very confused and flustered boy.

"Why did I do that, why did I do that?" she internally screamed to herself running up a flight of stairs. "He probably thinks I'm a freak for doing that." Thanks to the hero training, she made up two flights of stairs without needing to catch her breath, but her heart was still beating as if she just finished a marathon. "He didn't pull away so perhaps he liked it?" she unlocked the door and quickly slipped inside. "Why did I do that?" she asked herself again, clutching her hand over her heart. It wasn't like her to act on an impulse, especially one brought up from a silly science experiment. But she had to admit, that picture of him locked in battle pulled out something that she couldn't quite hold back.

"I like him." Momo said aloud to herself in the comfort and privacy of her own room. Being able to finally admit it to herself was enough to make her start giggling as she flopped onto her oversized bed. It felt good to stop fighting her feelings and just admit it. She was genuinely happy and nothing could ruin this. She lived in the dorms so her mother wouldn't be able to try and control her, and while Todoroki may not even like her back there was a nagging gut feeling telling her that he did and she should go for it. For once, she might rely on her gut over her brains. She rolled over onto her back and stared at the flowy canopy draping from the banisters with a big grin on her face.

"I like Todorki Shouto."

* * *

 **WOOP THERE IT IS.**

 **I've always liked the idea of Momo being like Meg from Hercules during the "I Won't say I'm in Love" song**

 **Ooo another fanfic idea, Class 1-A as Olympic Gods! Haha maybe another time, but yeah thanks for reading!**


	10. One Step Closer

**Thank you so much for being patient! I'm not going to blabber on, so here's the next chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 10**

Shouto entered and left Mina's room with a visible blush on his cheeks. He's been up close to plenty of girls in his life, however 99% of those cases involved the female trying to attack him. The other 1% was Yaoyorozo. He wasn't quite sure what happened outside Mina's room, one moment they were talking like normal and the next she was swiping away some of his hair, her angelic face inches from his. She must've had vanilla lotion on because the intoxicating smell wafted from her fingertips and danced around his nose. He wanted to stay there like that with her forever but a second later both her hand, and Yaoyorozu herself, were gone. He was lost in a vanilla scented trance when the door flew open and Mina stood in the entrance with a sly look on her face. He never should have agreed to participate, but hindsight is always 20/20.

Everything was fine up until question 11 when a seductive picture of Yaoyorozu modeling popped up on his screen. It was common knowledge that she started to model in her spare time, but he always saw the tamer pictures from basic clothing magazines or hair products, never anything like this. She was lying on her back, perching herself up on one arm and running a hand through her raven hair with the other. Her long legs were outstretched over a light pink beach towel and her onyx eyes stared directly into the camera with a small smile splayed on her cherry red lips. While the pose made him gawk, her outfit almost made him choke. Yaoyorozu was wearing a flashy red bikini that he would call reserved, but her well endowed chest and feminine curves did little for modesty.

Shouto tried to ignore the quiet snicker from the two girls at his reaction and focus on memorizing every detail of the picture. Before he could, the picture vanished to black and before he could process the onslaught of emotions that the picture brought, Mina reminded him to fill out the questionnaire in front of him. He silently filled out the paper and prayed no more surprises would pop up in the slide show.

He finished as fast as he could and booked it out of the tortuous room to get back to his own. He let out a shaky breath when he unlocked the door to his room and went to prepare some tea to hopefully help him relax. With the water boiling he was left with the bundle of thoughts he pushed aside during the experiment. The forefront was jealousy, will those two show all the guys that picture? They don't deserve to see Yaoyorozu like that, hell he didn't deserve to see her in that pose. Did she show those pictures to anyone? Was she saving them for someone? He grumbled at the thought and grabbed the container of green tea from his cabinet. The next emotion that swirled its way in was the typical male response, lust. It would be impossible for his mind not to go down that road.

A lump rose to his throat as the imaginary Yayorozu strode up to him and ran her fingers through his hair, he would say something cool and charming then she would laugh her bubbly laugh and lean in to kiss him. If only he was that smooth. The thankfully empty tea cup clanked onto the floor at the thought of Yaoyorozu wearing the fiery red bikini around him, _for_ him. Her body pressed up to his as she kissed him, his arms wrapped around her bare waist, pulling her close.

The fantasy fizzled out when the kettle started to whistle. This was getting too much for him.

"I don't have time for this," he muttered to himself. His thoughts were racing but one kept presenting itself no matter how hard he tried to push it down. It was a taunt of sorts, something that came from deep within and it always came out at the worst of times.

"You're going to hurt her," the voice, his voice, sneered. "You're just like him."

"Shut up," he mumbled to himself. He tried for so long to separate himself from his father, and he's made progress, but it'll never be enough. A guy as damaged as him doesn't deserve a girl as pure as Yaoyorozu and he figured that from the moment he met her, but a tiny part of him is trying to yell out, 'fuck it, go for her' and he keeps pushing that aside too. It's better to feel nothing than to feel everything… right? He stirred in the green tea powder but lost his appetite at the battle raging inside of him. He quietly cleaned up and was about to go to sleep when his phone buzzed.

 _ **Yaoyorozu:**_

 _I just made a small scale of the city block that we can use to make the larger one!_

 _-1 image attached-_

He glanced at the photo and saw a cute little city no bigger than one of those old block TV's. He zoomed in on two blotches of color in the black and white city and smiled at the two figurines, one of him and one of her, in front of one of the buildings.

 _ **Shouto:**_

 _Looks good._

He hit send and inwardly cursed himself at the short reply, would she think he was being rude? That's how he always replies. His phone went off again a few seconds later.

 _ **Yaoyorozu:**_

 _Thank you! I'm hoping it turns out even better when we do the full-sized version._

 _ **Shouto:**_

 _I'm sure it will._

 _ **Yaoyorozu:**_

 _Thanks for the optimism! I'm going to get some sleep now, so I'll see you tomorrow! Goodnight, Todoroki_

He felt his cheeks burn and he wasn't too sure why.

 _ **Shouto:**_

 _Goodnight, Yaoyorozu._

He fell onto his futon and remembered that he still owed her dinner on Friday after the science festival. A 'date'. He's been asked on several by pining underclassmen, but he had no interest in going anywhere with girls he barely knew, especially ones that would mildly stalk him. He's never actually been on one, not even a friend date as she put it. He already offered to pay so that's taken care of, but do they dress up? Do they go to the movies and dinner? Just dinner? Would lunch be better? He groaned and rolled over onto his stomach. Tomorrow he would unfortunately have to ask someone who has had a lot of experience in this area.

"Bakugo," Shouto walked up to the loud-mouthed blonde who was munching on some breakfast in the empty common area. Strangely enough, he happened to know that Bakugo ate breakfast before getting dressed which was the opposite of his other classmates.

"What do you want ice brains, can't you see I'm eating?" he barked back, still in his pajamas.

"I would rather not be here, but you're the only person I can ask about this." Bakugo put down his spoon and folded his arms over his chest, leaning back into the wooden chair glaring up at Shouto.

"Go on," he said.

"I'm going on a date."

"And…?" he went back to eating. "What's the question, dumbass?"

"Where do you go when you take someone on a date?"

"Depends on the person," he scooped up another spoonful of cereal and looked up at Shouto with a slight smirk. "Who's your date with?"

"I'd rather not say."

"Is it because she's ugly?"

"No, she's very attractive," Shouto blurted out.

"Oh? Do I know her?" Bakugo watched Shouto for a second then his smirk widened, "So I do. Class A or B?"

"Again, I'd rather not say." Bakugo huffed and dropped his spoon on the table.

"Listen Jack Frost, do you want my help or not?" Shouto sighed, Bakugo would be the least likely to tell anyone anyways due to him not giving a shit about anyone but himself.

"Yaoyorozu," Shouto mumbled.

"Ponytail?" Bakugo made a tch noise and folded his arms, "It makes sense now, how'd you manage that?"

"I offered to buy her food and she called it a date." Bakugo barked out a laugh and slammed his hand on the table.

"Wow, that's so pathetic, you didn't even actually ask her." Shouto frowned at the insult.

"I should've asked Midoriya instead," he grumbled and went to walk away.

"Hold it Ice Queen, I never said I wouldn't help," his tone turned serious, "and don't go telling that bastard about this, he doesn't even have the balls to ask out round face."

Shouto stopped and turned back to face the spiky blonde, the smirk no longer on his face and he nodded in agreement. "Don't tell anyone though, I don't want this getting back to Yaoyorozu."

"Like hell I would, these idiots would only get in the way." The elevator dinged. "Come by my dorm after class."

"Thanks, Bakugo."

"Whatever." Ilda and Midoriya walked out of the elevator chatting about their respective projects. They waved and walked over to the duo by the tables.

"Good morning you two!" Ilda greeted then glanced to the blonde, "Bakugo! You're still in your pajamas, class starts in thirty minutes!" His hands were wildly chopping through the air.

"Shut up, bastard, I got plenty of time. I would've had more if ice-for-brains didn't bother me."

"I was just leaving," Shouto said and he grabbed a granola bar out of the cabinet then headed out the back door. Who would've thought Bakugo would ever be helpful. The U.A halls were nearly empty when he walked in, he headed to the classroom and took his usual seat in the back. He glanced at the empty chair next to him and felt his stomach do a quick flip. The fuzzy feelings are still a little foreign to him, but he's not opposed to them. It would make his life so much easier if he could put those feelings into words, but every time he tries to think of what to say to her, nothing comes out. Practice makes perfect, so he'll have to start small.

"I can do this."

* * *

 **Meanwhile**

* * *

 _ **Lord Explosion Murder:**_ _Your stupid experiment worked._

 _ **Alien Queen:**_ _Of course it did! Both their heartbeats were off the charts! Todoroki even blushed!_

 _ **Sparky:**_ _Todoroki showed emotion? What pic of YaoMomo did you even use?_

 _ **Alien Queen:**_ _One that you'll never see_

 _What made you say that though? LordExplosionMurder_

 _ **Lord Explosion Murder:**_ _Idiot asked me for dating advice_

 _ **Alien Queen:**_ _WHAAAT?!_

 _ **Sparky:**_ _Damn, good on Todoroki_

 _ **Hard-On:**_ _I was in the shower, what did I miss?_

 _That was very manly of him_

 _ **Sparky:**_ _What's the next step Mina?_

 _Mina?_

* * *

 _ **Pinky:**_ _TODOROKI AND MOMO ARE GOING ON A DATE!_

 _ **Deku's Girl:**_ _WHAT? WHEN?_

 _ **RockStar:**_ _How did you find out?_

 _ **Pinky:**_ _Bakugo told me_

 _ **RockStar:**_ _You told him about this?_

 _ **Pinky:**_ _That's not the point right now_

 _ **NowYouSeeMe:**_ _I agree with Mina, this means that our plan worked!_

 _ **Froppy:**_ _Soon the whole class except Momo and Todoroki will be in on this._

 _ **Deku's Girl:**_ _Even Aizawa-sempai?_

 _ **RockStar:**_ _I'M CRYING LOL_

 _ **Pinky:**_ _I wonder if he secretly ships us with other classmates_

 _ **NowYouSeeMe:**_ _Could you imagine him setting up lesson plans to pair up his 'OTPs'?!_

 _ **Deku's Girl:**_ _Omg I won't be able to look at him the same again._

 _ **RockStar:**_ _I want to come back to this convo later, but we need to plan for phase two._

 _I hate saying this, but we'll need Bakugo's help._

 _ **Pinky:**_ _One step ahead of ya!_

 _ **-Pinky added Lord Explosion Murder-**_

 _ **Lord Explosion Murder:**_ _Oh hell no._

 _ **Pinky:**_ _Okay Jirou, what's phase 2?_

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed it! I love reading all your super sweet comments, they make my day!**

 **I know the "group chat" thing is used a lot but it's so much fun haha**

 **I'll see you guys next chapter though! Thanks for reading and stay beautiful!**


	11. Preparations

**Hi there! Long time no post! Thanks for being so patient! I'm excited to get back into the story, it's coming to a close pretty soon too, only a few more chapters!**

* * *

 **The Day Before the Science Fair**

"Thanks for helping me, Momo," Jirou walked into the luxurious dorm room and plopped onto the bed.

"I'm happy to be of assistance!" Momo smiled and walked over to her closet, throwing it open. Dresses of all varieties were crammed as nicely as possible into the small space given to the students. She rummaged through the clothes spilling out and reached her hand into the very back, half of her body disappearing into the silky fabrics, she resurfaced with a shorter purple dress in her hands and showed it off. "Is something like this what you had in mind?"

"You're a lifesaver!" Jirou gently took the dress and held it over herself to get an idea of what it would look like on her. It was a darker lavender color with off the shoulder long sleeves, it went down to a little above her knee and had a bit of flair towards the bottom making it poof out a little.

"I'm happy there was something in here that suits you. We are supposed to look nice when presenting our project after all," Momo said. With the science fair set for tomorrow afternoon, most of the other groups were struggling to put the final touches on their projects or finish their essay explaining their scientific process, but she and Todoroki had finished earlier in the afternoon and agreed to store the model in Todoroki's room for the night.

She's not blind, nor an idiot, she knows that he's been having trouble with his quirk recently which could be due to several things, but she's found that unintentional quirk use mostly stems from an extreme fluctuation of emotions or a lack of experience with the quirk, and Todoroki does not lack experience. So, while they were working Momo kept finding subtle ways to touch or brush up against him, she read somewhere that those were hints girls dropped when they liked someone and wanted him to know. She was never one to take advice from those kinds of magazines, but it seemed like a good idea, mostly for her own selfish reason because she enjoyed the feel of his skin, how warm one arm could be and how cold the other was. She was worried he would be taken aback by her since their previous interaction consisted of her invading his personal space to brush away some hair, but he seemed like his usual uninterested self which was both relieving and a little bothersome. Were her hints too subtle?

"What are you going to wear?" Jirou asked, moving to the over stuffed closet to rummage around.

"Probably something with an open back and no sleeves since we'll have to use our quirks to demonstrate."

"What about this?" the earphone jack girl pulled out a bright satin red dress and held it up. It was asymmetrical in length and sleeveless except for a single strap that stretched from her chest over her shoulder to help hold the dress up.

"Wouldn't that be a little too much?"

"I think this is too much, but I want to look good in front of my parents and the other teachers."

"I suppose you're right, although my mother won't even be able to attend." Momo looked over the dress again then took it to the bathroom to try it on.

"Oh, I'm sorry Momo, you know my family is going out to eat after and you can come too, they wouldn't mind," Jirou said with a knowing smirk.

"I would love to, Jirou, but I-I already have plans actually."

"Really? With who?"

"Todoroki." Momo emerged from the bathroom with a blush on her face and avoided all eye contact.

"Oh? Like a date?" Jirou raised an eyebrow.

"I believe so," Momo fidgeted with the hem of the dress on the higher side and turned to the mirror to get a better look at it.

"Does that mean you like him?"

"Yes. I believe it does," Momo's normally confident and upbeat voice came out like a whisper.

"If that's case, we have to make sure you look amazing tomorrow, so he won't even be able to speak when he sees you."

"He already barely speaks around me," Momo started to laugh, Jirou really was the best friend a person could ask for.

 **Elsewhere.**

"Thanks again for this," Shouto mumbled.

"Yeah, whatever. Just don't go telling the extras about this," Bakugo said with a growl and Shouto nodded. "First off don't look like shit tomorrow."

"I didn't plan on."

"Great, you're somewhat competent," he leaned back against the wall in his room, "I still don't get what she sees in you."

"Yeah me either to be honest," the half and half boy muttered. He may be socially inept, but he was not an idiot, as of recently anyways, he knows people blush when they're embarrassed or self-conscious and Yaoyorozu had been blushing around him a lot lately. She would also make eye-contact with him, while that could just be good manners, it would always be paired with a slight touch to his arm or an accidental brush up against him. Her gentle fingertips would send chills up his spine and he found himself craving more of it, more of her.

"That's second, stop being so damn pathetic!" the blonde barked. "Have some confidence, do you doubt yourself while fighting?"

"No?"

"Then why are you doubting yourself now? She was the one your messed-up head chose to bring into that simulation after all." Shouto stiffened at the reminder, if Bakugo and Jirou noticed then who else did?

"You're right."

"Damn straight I am," he pulled out his phone and scrolled for a second before tossing it to Shouto. "Here are some restaurants around school that you can go to."

"These are all pretty fancy," he noted while scrolling through the names.

"Ponytail is a fancy kind of person and you're both going to be wearing nice clothes, so it'll work." Shouto nodded and kept scrolling and eventually picked one that wasn't the fanciest, but it was close to their dorms and had a nice menu.

"This one should work, right?"

"I wouldn't know, I've never been there," Bakugo grunted and folded his arms.

"Okay, um I think that's all?" Shouto stood and went to leave.

"Oi," Shouto stopped with his hand on the doorknob. "Don't be an idiot, ponytail is one of the only half-way decent people in this school so don't fuck it up and don't hurt her."

"Okay," he replied, shocked that Bakugo had feelings, that weren't hatred, for someone other than himself.

He left the room with a little more confidence than before and wandered back to his own. He opened his closet and pulled out the outfit he wore to the party at I-Island and set it aside to wear for tomorrow. Shouto changed into his usual pajamas then rolled onto his futon and stared at his phone.

 _ **Yaoyorozu:**_

 _I look forward to presenting our project with you tomorrow._

"Have more confidence," he repeated aloud. It was amazing how he could be so confident during fights and training, yet he was so unsure and nervous when it came to these delicate social situations. Deciding to take Bakugo's advice, he grabbed his phone and sent a text.

 _ **Shouto:**_

 _I do too._

 _I also look forward to our date._

Shouto let out a sigh, this was a risky text and he knew it, he just hoped he'd been reading her signs correctly. His phone buzzed and he froze. It was a quick reply, was that a good thing? He held his thumb over the message app and quickly clicked it.

 _ **Yaoyorozu:**_

 _As do I_

He felt the same rush that he did when he won a fight, maybe he was alright after all. 

_**RockStar:**_ _Momo is going to make Todoroki drop dead in her dress_

 _ **Deku's Girl:**_ _thanks for reminding me, I have to ask her to borrow one!_

 _ **Lord Explosion Murder:**_ _Icy Hot isn't a completely useless idiot anymore. He's taking ponytail out for dinner somewhere on the stupid list you sent me._

 _Can't believe I helped you extras._

 _ **-Lord Explosion Murder has left the chat-**_

 _ **Pinky:**_ _see? He can be nice sometimes!_

 _ **Deku's Girl:**_ _I wouldn't call that nice_

 _ **Rockstar:**_ _so they're set for going out to dinner!_

 _ **NowYouSeeMe:**_ _should we dress up as waiters to make sure everything goes alright?_

 _ **Froppy:**_ _I think we should let them do this themselves_

 _ **Rockstar:**_ _Tsu's right, we shouldn't do anything else, I'm pretty sure they both know they like each other, so now we just sit back and watch._

 _ **Pinky:**_ _they're going to have the cutest kids!_

 _ **Deku's Girl:**_ _I wonder who's quirk they'd get?!_

 _ **Froppy:**_ _You guys are jumping a little too far ahead_

 _ **NowYouSeeMe:**_ _Tsu's right, again, we should focus on our next project._

 _ **Deku's Girl:**_ _next project? But the science fair was the only project we needed to do_

 _ **Pinky:**_ _Project 2: get deku and uraraka together!_

 _ **Rockstar:**_ _now that's something I can get behind_

 _ **Pinky:**_ _or get denki and jirou together!_

 _ **Deku's Girl:**_ _I like that one more_

* * *

 **Thank you guys for reading and sticking with this story! I really appreciate all the feedback and favorites and follows. You guys are awesome. I'll see you guys next time with a longer chapter!**


	12. The Finale

**Thank you all for the views, reviews, and all that fun jazz. I really dropped the ball on this story but I am here to finish it (a year or two later, whoops). But thank you all for sticking with it along the way!**

* * *

Shouto was up far earlier than usual, even for him. The sun had barely began to rise over the horizon and he was wide awake, staring at the ceiling. His calm exterior was a mask for the torrent of various emotions swirling inside of him. Tonight he would be going on a date with Yaoyorozu. He looked up tips on how to be a gentleman on the first date and even called the restaurant ahead to ask them to have some flowers set aside on their table for her. He hoped that red roses wouldn't seem too forward for their first date. But thinking back to it, it feels that they've had many "dates" before this; from project planning to late night study sessions, this one just happened to be official. He checked his phone and noticed that it was a couple minutes after 5. He still had three hours before he even had to be at school to set up, 'better make the most of it,' he thought and walked to the shower.

 **Elsewhere**

Momo was a hot mess. She may have had her dress planned out but everything else was a mystery. Should her makeup be bold or subtle? Should her hair be up or down, curled or straight? Should she wear heels and risk being taller than Todoroki? Would he mind that? She flung herself onto her bed with a 'humph' and stared at the canopy draped above her. It's barely sunrise and she's stressed about her attire. Since when did all of this matter?

Running her hands through her hair, she started giggling at herself. She was behaving like a regular teenager for once. Not worrying about a villain attacking them or the next training routine she should follow, but an outfit meant to attract the attention of her crush. It all felt so normal to her. She glanced at her phone, 5:15 am, she still had plenty of time before she had to go set up with Todoroki.

She threw a bit of makeup into a travel size bag, straightened her hair, and put her dress in a protective bag. While they were setting up, she didn't want to have to create things wearing that dress and risk it ripping or getting stained. She would just wait to put it on until it was closer to the actual presentation time. Instead she opted for the UA training attire; sweatpants, a tank top, and her jacket. She left her room and headed to the common area to grab some breakfast. With everything she planned on creating, she would definitely need the extra lipids.

Half of her classmates were nowhere to be found, presumably still sleeping, while the other half were silently eating in the common area, probably too stressed to sleep. Todoroki was nowhere to be found and she assumed he was one of the lucky ones still able to sleep. She grabbed her prepared meals from the fridge and decided to walk to school and eat there. It was a quiet, serene walk this early in the morning and although she arrived over an hour earlier than what the teachers had recommended there was already other students and administration setting up. It appeared that a majority of her classmates she thought were sleeping were really already here, including her partner. He was standing off in their roped off square of the auditorium, basic model plan filling the aquare, back to her, in deep thought. She immediately felt guilty and ran up to him, breakfast in hand.

"I apologize for being late, Todorki." He didn't hear her approach and jumped a little as he turned around. She noticed the way he eyed her outfit and she blushed, "I also apologize for my attire, I didn't want to create large things in my dress until it was time to demonstrate."

He nodded and cleared his throat, "That's understandable, and you weren't late, I was early."

"Could you not sleep?"

"Not really." They both nodded in silence then he glanced down at her food. "You should finish eating before we start setting up."

"Ah yes, of course!" As she finished her omelet and fruit she noticed the remaining students trickling in. They all were dressed in their best attire, for some that meant actually wearing a button up shirt, and for others it was a full gown with their hair done. Her eyes did a once-over then a twice-over of Todoroki. He was in a black suit with a red vest underneath, similar to what he wore on I-Island. His hair was neatly combed and he glanced between the layout plans and the model with one hand in his pocket. If it wasn't for his occasional movements, she would think he was a model pulled from a magazine. She slapped her cheeks to reground herself and did a little stretch in preparation for her quirk use.

Momo took off her jacket and stood next to Todoroki, eyeing the layout they had planned and what they had already made. While they finished the basic layout like the streets, smaller buildings, and some details they decided that putting everything on the platform would be too heavy and burdensome to move so they agreed that Momo would build the larger things the morning of. She lifted her shirt to expose her stomach and began pulling out a large structure. One after the other came out and she took a quick breath after five buildings. She glanced over and met Todoroki's wide-eyed stare. Glancing down, she noticed the state of her shirt and blushed before yanking it back down.

"Are you alright, Yaoyorozu?"

"Yes, I think I made these a little too quickly, that's all." The five buildings ranged in height and width, some were 6ft tall skyscrapers while others were wide business centers. She went back to creating while Todoroki was guiding her on what to build next. They moved the buildings into their proper locations and left a spot open for their test models in the center of the "city". Momo then went to put the finishing touched on the city by adding tiny model trees, cars, and people. By the time they had everything set up, it was nearly noon and almost time for the science fair to begin. Looking at the clock, Momo gasped and grabbed her dress bag and makeup and made a bee-line for the locker rooms.

 **Meanwhile**

Shouto was always in awe of how much Yaoyorozu's quirk could produce. He admired how much training in both mind and body went into perfecting the process. He quietly watched as she grabbed her things and ran off and turned his attention to his peers and the now stream of parents and citizens coming in through the entrance. Thankfully they were one of the last presentations to go so she would have plenty of time to get ready. Not that she needed it, he thought she looked perfect no matter what she wore. He caught a familiar tuff of white hair bobbing through the crowd and saw Natsuo furiously waving at him. He inwardly groaned, if his dad wasn't going to show up, leave it to his brother to.

"Hey Shouto!" Natsuo waved and then took in the sight of the city-scape behind him. He let out a low whistle, "That's quite a project you got there, where's your partner?"

"Getting ready."

"Always the man of few words, Fuyumi said to say hi, she's with mom. She wants me to videotape your presentation and send it over."

"That's fine."

"Dad's coming."

"Okay." While things were getting better, it definitely was not okay. Why would Enji care if he presented something non-combat related. It felt very uncharacteristic of him. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of a red blur quickly approaching him. He turned and the air was caught in his throat at the sight.

There was Yaoyorozu. She must've been running because she was a little out of breath, tiny puffs of air coming out of her red lips. She put on lipstick. He glanced up to her face and saw she also put on some eyeshadow. Her hair was straightened and elegantly fell down her back and over her shoulders, melting in with the dress she wore.

The dress.

Todoroki had no words to describe her dress. Everything he thought of would not do it justice. Calling it elegant or beautiful or alluring would not be enough to capture how she looked. The asymmetrical dress covered enough to be practical for a school event but showed enough that it was beneficial for her quirk. The neckline was covered with a single strap stretching from one side of the dress over and around to the back. Her curves were perfectly accentuated in the dress. It was all-

"Stunning!" Natsuo said from beside him. "You look stunning." This earned a blush from Yaoyorozu and a glare from Shouto. Noticing the stare he was promptly elbowed by his brother, "What do you think, bro?"

"You look good." He cursed himself and went to try again, "You look really good."

"Please excuse my brother, he's never been good with words," Yaoyorozu let out a small chuckle, "I'm Natsuo, Shouto's big brother."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Todoroki," she politely bowed, "I'm Yayorozu Momo."  
"Please call me Natsuo!" he insisted, earning another glare from Shouto.

"Shouldn't you be watching the first presentation?" Shouto said.

"You don't want to hang out with your brother? I'm hurt," he feigned getting stabbed in the heart.

"Ah, I didn't even realize the first presentation!" Yaoyorozu quickly hurried to the other side of the auditorium to watch Tsu and Koda present their Animal-Quirk-Comparison project leaving Shouto and his brother alone again.

"She's cute," Natsuo beamed, elbowing Shouto again, "I see why you like her."

Shouto didn't reply but allowed a slight smile to appear on his face and watched Natsuo walk away to listen to the other presentations.

 **Meanwhile**

The parents and citizens were enjoying the presentations so far. Tsu and Koda's had real animals and showed how similar quirks can be to their animal counterparts, Midoriya and Uraraka were dropping many different objects such as a pound of bricks, mannequins, different food, and a pound of feathers from different heights to test not only their impact site but terminal velocity. Jirou and Kaminari's tested how electricity can move through different materials by using Kaminari's quirk to try and power Jirou's guitar while she was playing music through a variety of different cords made out of different materials, curtesy of Momo.

Reaching Mina and Hagakure's experiment, Momo was visibly nervous at how they were going to present their results. The duo showed off how they presented the questions, demonstrated a couple of the pictures and showed how different people's heartbeats sped up for different pictures. Mina's eyes then turned mischievous as she caught Momo's eyes in the crowd.

"We also found, that showing people the object of their affection, a crush so to speak, saw their heartbeat soar and elicited an extremely high positive response." While Momo was proud of their scientific vocabulary, she couldn't help but feel nervous at their implications and how it was directed straight towards her.

Momo decided to make her way back to their project to get ready, there was only one group remaining before it was their turn and although she's been in countless battles, there's still something nerve-wracking about presenting in front of others. Todoroki was there and seemed to sense her nervousness. He offered a gentle smile, one that made Momo's stomach flutter and not from nerves. She wanted to say something, anything, but couldn't find the right words to she opted to stand there in silence with him.

The crowd began to approach their square. There was probably a couple dozen people, some reporters, some interested citizens, but most were parents. Momo caught sight of Natuso holding a phone next to the new number one hero. While he normally seemed so intense and angry on TV when fighting, he looked softer standing in jeans and a polo, his expression was unreadable, just like Todoroki's, but caught sight of a smile when Natsuo muttered something to him.

"And next may I present to you Todoroki Shouto and Yayorozu Momo demonstrating common building materials effect to withstand stress!" Principal Nezu said before moving out of the way.

Momo snuck a glance at Todoroki, he remained impassive as always, "Hello and thank you for attending. As Principal Nezu mentioned, we are here to show how building materials hold up to stress put upon it by certain quirks. In this instance we are using ice and fire."

"Welcome to Test City," Todoroki chimed in. "This is where we will be testing the materials, however we need a building first." Upon saying that, Momo began to form one of their 8ft tall test buildings and placed it on their square. The crowd gave a couple 'ooos' and 'aahs'.

"And now we need ice and fire," Momo smiled, gesturing towards Todoorki. He returned her smile and stepped up to the platform. "Please everyone, take a couple steps back," she directed.

Todoroki began to freeze over the building, while Momo talked about different materials' melting point and freeze point. The crowd watched as Todoroki switched to fire and began to melt down the ice as well as the material. More 'ooos' and 'aahs' echoed through the auditorium.

This continued through all the materials they had listed and ended by demonstrating that more tests should be done with different quirks to determine the most suitable building material to withstand villain attacks. The crowd gave applauded then moved onto the next presentation leaving two people behind, Natsuo and Enji.

"You two did great!" Natsuo said. "Especially you, Momo!"

Momo felt her cheeks heat up and instinctively glanced to Todoroki to find a little bit of smoke coming from his side and a glare directed towards Natsuo.

"Yes, you both did… well I suppose," Enji muttered, his deep yet quiet voice catching Momo off-guard from his normal booming tone she heard on TV.

"Thank you so much, Natsuo and Mr. Todoroki," she bowed. "We appreciate your feedback."

"Mom and Fuyumi are going to love this," Natsuo smiled as he tapped away on the phone.

"Um Natsuo? If it's not too much trouble, can you send the video to me as well? My parents were unable to make it and I would like for them to be able to see it too."

"Of course Momo! Put in your number." He handed her his phone and she sent it to herself, smiling. While things may not always be the best with her parents, they would be proud to see her become such a well-rounded hero and student.

"I'm not sure what this had to do with becoming a hero, but it was, good," Enji said.

"Thanks," Todoroki muttered back. "You should watch the other presentations too, it would look bad for you if you didn't."

"You're right thank you Shouto," he turned and took a couple steps before calling over his shoulder, "It was nice to meet you, Ms. Yaoyorozu, I look forward to seeing more of you in the future."

Momo's cheeks turned bright pink and she shot a glance at Todoroki who also appeared to flushed and at a loss for words. She tried to muster something but was cut off by Natsuo's laughter as he clapped his dad on the back and they walked away. They stood their in silence for a couple seconds, not able to look at each other.

Then Momo piped up, "You should go hang out with them, Todoroki, they came all this way to see you."

"I should help you clean up though."

"Family is more important, I can handle this." He nodded and walked off, disappearing in the crowd as they watched Bakugo and Kirishima's very loud presentation on explosives.

 **Afterwards**

With the last presentation finished and the auditorium nearly cleaned up, Shouto found Yaoyorozu in the crowd chatting with Kyoka and her parents. It was nearly 5pm and he made the reservation for 6:30, enough time to walk over and get there with time to spare. He had already said goodbye to his family and had endured a lifetime's worth of teasing from his brother, and occasionally his father, about Yaoyorozu. It was the most normal conversation he ever had with his family. Kyoka, noticing him just standing there, promptly said goodbye to Yaoyorozu and ushered her parents out of the auditorium, flashing a thumbs up to him on the way out.

"Oh Todoroki! I didn't see you standing there," she smiled at him.

"I wasn't here long."

"Did your brother and father already leave?"

"Yeah they had… things to do I guess," he shrugged. The true reason they left so quickly is that during all the badgering, Shouto let out that they were getting dinner after this and they didn't want to "interfere" with the "lovebirds" as Natsuo put it.

"Ah I see." They stood there in silence for a few more seconds.

"Would you like to get dinner now?" Shouto blurted out, "I found a nice place earlier."

"Oh! Yes, of course, I hope it's not too nice though, I don't want you to spend a lot of money on me," she twirled a strand of hair between her fingertips.

"But you're worth it," Todoroki deadpanned. If he wasn't so embarrassed himself for saying that out loud he would've cherished the way her face turned pink for a lot longer. Still acting on instinct, he grabbed her hand and led her out of the auditorium, much to the glee of the several students who were still cleaning up, including Mina and Hagakure.

They walked outside in the cool afternoon air and were a little ways down the sidewalk when Shouto noticed he was still holding her hand.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, quickly releasing her hand. He was surprised when her hand reached back over to grab his.

"Don't be," she smiled. He relaxed into her grip. He liked the way her hands were soft and she was drawing a small circle on his knuckled with her thumb. He never knew such a small gesture like holding someone's hand could feel so intimate.

They made it into town in relative silence. Shouto barely noticed the busy streets and crowds of people, he was too busy admiring the way Yaoyorozu's eyes would light up when she noticed a dessert shop or the thoughtful smile that teased her lips when she saw another couple walking and holding hands. They were only a block or two from the restaurant when a loud crash broke them from their thoughts and they quickly parted hands, looking for the sound of the commotion.

People were running towards them so they pushed against the flow of the crowd to get to the source of the noise, they saw a three story building engulfed in flames, a stream of people screaming and running out while small bangs and crashes could be heard from inside.

"We have to help them!" they both said at the same time and immediately sprung into action. Seeing people on the rood, Shouto created an ice ramp up and helped the people slide down while Yaoyorozu crated some oxygen masks and began distributing them to people outside.

"There's more people stuck in there, please, help!" an older woman ran out crying to Yaoyorozu. Shouto could see her think for a moment before charging into the burning building. He quickly helped the last couple people slide down the ramp before sliding himself down and following her into the building. It was filled with smoke and the heat was radiating from the flames that filled the room, he began to try and put them out with his ice, but the sound of screaming caused him to stop and root out the source of the noise. He ran up a flight of stairs to see Yaoyorozu creating a support beam and saw from her body. She placed the beam underneath a noticeably saggy section of the ceiling and hearing footsteps behind her turned and smiled when she saw it was him.

"I'm going to cut in through the door, please stand back!" she yelled to the occupants on the other side. After hearing some footsteps, she began to cut through the door with ease and the three remaining occupants of the building, a father and his two kids, were able to clamor out through the hole.

"Thank you so much!" the father cried, picking up a child in each arm and following Shouto as they run out of the building. Yaoyorozu was not far behind, and they made it out onto the street, coughing heavily as the building began to collapse. Two heroes arrived and were able to quickly put out the flames with one's water quirk and the other's air quirk.

After catching their breath and being thanked by countless civilians, Shouto checked his watch; 6:25pm. They still had time to make the reservation. He glanced over at Yaoyorozu as she was answering the hero's questions regarding the incident. She turned to face him and smiled, a little bit of ash was smeared on her cheeks and her dress was singed around the bottom. She looked down and gasped, but then laughed.

"I guess we won't be able to go to that fancy place now."

"I still think we can," he smiled and grabbed her hand, leading her a few blocks down to the restaurant.

Apart from receiving strange looks from the waiters and other patrons, they had a remarkable dinner and Yaoyorozu was thrilled when she saw the red roses. Claiming with a blush that red was her favorite color. Shouto instinctively brought a hand up to his red side and felt himself smile, at least someone likes it. They shared dessert, a strawberry cheesecake, and went to leave.

"Please Todoroki, let me pay half, I feel bad."

"This was my treat to you, so no. Plus Natsuo would never let me live it down if I did."

She smiled and shyly looked down to her lap, "Then let me pay for the next date?"

"Next date?"

"Yes, I mean if you want to go out on another one, we don't have to, it was a silly idea. I'm sorry I got ahead of myself and-"

"I would like that," he cut her off and the anxiety on her face melted into relief and happiness.

They returned to the U.A campus around 9:30pm, making it back with a little time to spare before curfew. They stopped on the staircase leading up into the dorms. The lights in the common area were off and it looked like all the students were in their rooms. Shouto was inwardly relieved that no one would see them come back. He had enough teasing for the day.

"I had a really nice time, thank you," Yaoyorozu smiled.

"Of course Yaoyo-"

"You can call me Momo."

"Momo." He marveled at the way it felt to say her name. "I had a really nice time too."

"Maybe we can do something again, tomorrow perhaps?"

"Yeah, tomorrow is good," he couldn't help the excited smile break through onto his face and when he saw her cherry red lips curve upwards, he acted instinctively and swooped his head down for a quick kiss. He went to pull away but Momo's hands stopped him as she grabbed the lapel of his ash covered suit jacket and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss.

A few moments in pure bliss passed and they pulled away, both a little out of breath but smiling.

"I would like to do that again tomorrow too," Shouto said.

"I would like to do that again now," Momo countered, leaning in for another kiss.

 **Elsewhere**

 **Pinky:** _Shared 1 image_

 _Shared 1 image_

 _Shared 1 image_

 _Shared 1 image_

 **Deku's Girl:** THEY KISSED?!

 **Rockstar:** the plan worked!

 **Froppy:** should we tell them Azaiwa-sempai is on his way to lock the front doors for curfew?

 **NowYouSeeMe:** nah, I overheard him and Midnight-sempai talk about them as couple, let him have this

 **Pinky:** YOU HEARD WHAT? How could you not tell me? The betrayal!

 **Rockstar:** I better get a big shoutout at their wedding

 **Pinky:** PROJECT 2: JIROU AND KAMINARI!

 **NowYouSeeMe:** YYASSSS

 **Froppy:** they would make a good couple

 **Rockstar:** WHAT?

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! I can now happily say the story is finished! You guys are great, thank you so much for sticking through and reading all of it. I probably wouldn't have finished it if not for all your kind words and favorites and such. You guys really are fantastic :)**


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